Crimson Storm Read online

  “Okay well, whether you drink my blood or not, we have to get you all out of here tonight—before Glenn gets here.” He paused a beat to think. “If you’re too weak to run, you could take Terry’s SUV.”

  “I can’t drive.”

  “What? You look old enough to have a license.”

  “I am. I was seventeen when I was turned. But I never got a license. My family... didn’t have a car.”

  That was the simple explanation. We didn’t have time to get into the rest of it.

  “Heather’s too sick to drive, but maybe Kelly could do it. I’ll wake them. What time is it?”

  “About three o’clock. A couple hours till sunset. I’ll get the keys. Glenn won’t be here until about seven. You can just wait in the garage until the sun sets and it’s safe to go out.”

  Shane ran up the steps and out of sight. I roused my friends, encouraging them to get on their feet and get moving.

  After dark we’d drive straight to Los Angeles, to Sadie’s headquarters. She’d know what to do. If anyone could help with our legal troubles it was her.

  “What’s going on?” Kelly asked.

  “We’re getting out of here. Shane is helping us. Now come on and be quiet.”

  Heather was more difficult to rouse.

  “Go ’way,” she mumbled, swatting at my hand on her shoulder. “Tired.”

  She really needed blood. Her hypoglycemia had progressed to the point she was confused and irritable. As soon as we got on the road, I’d have to locate some blood bags for her.

  Her continued lethargy was concerning to say the least.

  Shane met us at the top of the stairs, holding a set of keys and several blankets. “I thought these might come in handy in case you have to sleep in the car or something. You could use it to cover the windows and block out the sun.”

  “Good thinking. Thanks,” I said, taking them from him.

  Since we were only going to LA, which was about a six-hour drive, we wouldn’t be needing them. We could easily make it there before sunrise, but I didn’t want to clue him into our plans.

  Shane stuffed his fingertips into his pockets and rocked forward and back on his feet. His pensive expression struggled to become a sad smile.

  “Okay, well, I guess it’s goodbye then. I’ll stay here and keep watch. If Uncle Terry wakes up, I’ll distract him and get him whatever he needs, keep him away from the garage until tonight when you’re long gone. You should have a good head start before he notices his car is missing.”

  We headed for the door connecting the kitchen and the garage. My friends went through it, but I stopped just short of the opening and turned back to face Shane. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t mention it—please. I feel terrible I played a part in getting you into this mess. If I’d known they were planning to hold you prisoner...”

  “I know,” I said, brushing off his apology. “And ultimately, you probably saved our lives by getting us out of that detention center. I’m glad I met you, Shane. Humans like you give me hope for the future.”

  “I’m glad I met you too. I wish... I mean, if you ever need anything... well, you know where to find me.”

  Without planning it or even thinking, I leaned forward and placed a swift kiss on his cheek. He smelled good, like woodsmoke and spice. And fresh blood.

  Drawing back sharply, I swallowed hard and pressed my fingernails into my palms to suppress a sudden craving.

  “Don’t worry about us. And thank you again. We’ll call the authorities and report an abandoned car wherever we leave it, so your uncle is sure to get it back.”

  Then I stepped into the garage and stopped—in shock.

  Glenn was there with a hand on each of my friends’ necks.

  10

  Blood Lust

  He’d used a pair of platinum handcuffs to lock them together. Further weakened by the rare metal, Heather looked like she might drop to the garage floor and drag Kelly down with her.

  Worse, Glenn’s truck was parked in the driveway outside the open garage door, directly behind the SUV. Even if I could somehow grab my friends and get them into the SUV, our path to escape was blocked.

  When he saw Shane, Glenn let out a mocking laugh. “You let the vamps out? She’s used her powers on you, boy—mesmerized you. I told you to stay away from that basement.”

  “Glenn... what are you doing here? I thought you were working today,” Shane said.

  “I’ll bet you did,” the guard said with a sneer. “I took off a half day so I could check on Terry, and it’s a good thing I did. Oh well, no matter. Now I don’t have to bother dragging your scrawny corpses up from the basement. I can just walk you right out the front into the sunlight—unless you’ve changed your minds about turning my brother.”

  Dragging my two friends along with him, he took several steps toward the open garage door. The sun was still up and strong enough to do plenty of damage if not kill them outright.

  “Last chance...” He jerked them toward the light in a joking-not-joking false start and actually laughed.

  We’d all endured insults and small aggressions during our time at the Safety Center—even before that. It was part of the vampire life.

  It could be tolerated with enough practice and patience. But I’d never had someone I loved threatened with daylighting.

  What happened next felt like a blur of sight, sound, and sensation. I was on him before even realizing I was planning to attack.

  Actually, there was no plan, only instinct. I simply could not let this man hurt my friends—I had to stop him.

  I grabbed the front of his uniform, pulling him away from Kelly and Heather. Clearly shocked by my speed and sudden nearness, he flailed and stumbled backward, grabbing onto the pendant necklace I always wore and breaking the chain.

  He looked down at his palm. “What is this? Some kind of vampire weapon?”

  Thrusting the pendant’s pointed tip out toward me, he waved it in my face as if wielding a dagger.

  “You stay back, or I’ll cut you with it.”

  “Give that back,” I growled, feeling my fangs protrude.

  Glenn was dead wrong about the artifact he was holding. It wasn’t a weapon, and it certainly couldn’t kill me, but I wasn’t going to explain its significance.

  Someone like him could never understand.

  He snickered. “Oh, I don’t think so. Shoe’s on the other foot now, isn’t it, leech?”

  Advancing toward me, he made a few weak jabs in my direction. His hand shook so hard he almost dropped the necklace. In fact, it slipped from his grip.

  Only the chain wrapped around his wrist saved the glass orb in its hilt from smashing on the hard garage floor.

  If he breaks it, I’ll kill him.

  No. All life is precious—even his.

  I worked to calm my tone and my predator’s instincts. “I won’t hurt you. There’s no need for this. Just give my necklace back and let us go.”

  “You think I’m stupid? You’ll report me and Terry to the police. We’ll be arrested. I’ll lose my job.”

  “I won’t,” I told him honestly.

  All I wanted was to get my pendant back and get my friends out of here safely. “I promise—just give me back the necklace, move your truck out of the way, and we’ll drive out of here in Terry’s SUV. You’ll never see us or hear from us again.”

  “Yeah right. Now you’re trying to play your mind tricks on me. Well it’s not going to work. All you vamps are liars and hypnotists, but I’m too smart for you.”

  Keeping the pendant’s sharp tip pointed at me, he fished in his pocket with the other hand, managing to extract his phone.

  “I’ll call the police myself. I’ll tell them you three took me hostage at the Safety Center and forced me to bring you here. Who do you think they’ll believe, huh? Me or you?”

  There was motion in my peripheral vision, and then Glenn was falling. With no chance to brace himself, his head impacted the garage floor with a l
oud thud. A dark pool of liquid seeped out from beneath it.

  “No,” I screamed, knowing what would come next. Kelly and Heather had used their linked arms to knock him off his feet.

  Now both fell to their knees and began drinking the spilled blood. It took only moments for them to move to Glenn himself.

  “No,” I repeated, charging forward and pulling them away from the fallen man.

  It wasn’t easy. Blood lust had set in. Because we’d been deprived for several days, it was even more severe than usual.

  Picture trying to take a food bowl away from a starving dog while he’s eating—then multiply it by about a thousand.

  Still handcuffed together, my friends growled and swiped at me with their free hands, struggling to get back to the source of that life-saving, energizing blood.

  I wasn’t angry with them—I understood completely. The scent of the fresh blood was nearly driving me mad as well.

  But this was bad. Very bad. Glenn was a Safety Center guard, and he was dying if not dead already.

  When he was discovered, the police really would think we’d kidnapped him and killed him.

  And now neither Kelly nor Heather could drive—not only would they have zero interest in leaving the feast, but they’d be intoxicated for hours.

  Dashing a desperate glance over at Shane, I barked an order. “Get his keys. You’re going to drive us.”

  11

  Danger Ahead

  Shane looked like he might be in shock. Remaining motionless, he stared at his uncle bleeding out on the floor.

  “Shane,” I yelled, and finally he looked at me. “You have to drive, and I need to get their handcuffs off. Get his keys. Now.”

  He still didn’t move. His gaze shifted from his uncle’s body to me. His eyes were wide with terror, which made sense, but I had no time for reassurances or kid gloves.

  The garage door was wide open. A neighbor could have seen what just happened and called the police to report a band of “savage” vampires roaming their peaceful neighborhood and murdering their “upstanding” neighbor.

  We might have mere minutes before a Vampire Suppression Unit showed up armed with the latest in anti-vamp ultraviolet and platinum weapons.

  I went to Shane, touching his shoulder and speaking in a low, serious voice. “We have to go—now. Your Uncle Terry could wake up any minute and come out here.”

  Swallowing hard, I added, “I’d hate to have to hurt him. Or you.”

  In all honesty I had no interest in harming the sickly man, and the thought of attacking Shane turned my stomach. But we were out of time. I had to say something to snap him out of his stunned inertia.

  “The keys...” he finally said.

  “Yes. We need them. Now move it. Get us out of here and I’ll let you go. Refuse to help us and I promise you’ll be sorry.”

  Apparently falling for my bluff—he had no idea what I was, or wasn’t, capable of—Shane began moving, walking over to his uncle and retrieving the keys he’d dropped.

  “The necklace too,” I said, reluctant to go any closer to the bleeding man.

  Shane obeyed then looked to me for further orders.

  “Unlock the handcuffs first. Then pick up the blankets,” I instructed. “Get them and put them around us.”

  There was no way I could restrain Kelly and Heather from fully draining Glenn while also draping the three of us to protect us from the light of day outside.

  We wouldn’t burst into flame immediately between the garage and the truck, but we’d be badly burned, and it would require even more blood to heal.

  That would be dangerous for Shane as the only human within reach. We’d be in close quarters in the truck’s cab, but there was no choice now. We couldn’t wait around here—we had to leave, and he had to drive us.

  He obeyed without a word, grabbing the blankets from the garage floor and draping them around us.

  “Now open the rear door of the truck and come back. You’re going to close the garage door behind us then get in the driver’s seat.”

  “Where are we going?” he asked in a dead-sounding voice.

  “I’ll tell you when we get on the road.”

  Wherever we went, it needed to be close. The blankets could only do so much. We needed to find shelter.

  Once we were covered, I moved toward the truck just outside the garage, pulling my unwilling friends along with me. Neither of them was very large, but they’d just fed, so the short journey was a struggle.

  The truck’s driver’s side door slammed behind Shane, and I had a moment of panic. He had the key fob. If he chose to, he could simply hit the lock button and drive away, leaving us behind to be arrested when the police arrived.

  But he didn’t. He started the engine and waited for me to get my friends into the backseat before pulling out of the driveway. I tented a blanket over my face and peeked from the opening to look through the windshield.

  Shane drove out of the driveway and to the end of the neighborhood street. “Where do you want to go?”

  “Take us into the city,” I said. “You can drop us off there and come back home.”

  He nodded and took a left, following signs toward a highway onramp.

  “You think he’ll turn?” he asked in a small voice, glancing back over his shoulder.

  “Your uncle?” Oh no. “Why? Has he been bitten before? By whom? How many times?”

  “I don’t know. At least a few. At work. Hazard of the job, you know?”

  So that was how Shane had known a single bite wouldn’t turn him. I certainly hoped Glenn did not turn. If he did, he’d more than likely come after us. But that was another problem for another day.

  “Give me the key ring and the necklace,” I said, still trying to maintain an intimidating tone.

  It felt wrong to keep frightening Shane and ordering him around, especially after he’d released us from the basement prison and given us his own blood to drink.

  But if I didn’t keep him scared, he might drive to a police station—or maybe even pull over to the shoulder of the road, get out, and just leave us there.

  I had to keep him under my control at least until the sun set.

  Unfortunately, his uncle had been wrong—we didn’t possess mind control powers. If we did, we’d have left the Safety Center long ago.

  Shane followed my instructions, handing the items to me then pulling the truck onto the highway. It was packed because of rush hour, and he stayed quiet as he navigated traffic.

  I set to work mending my necklace. Thankfully the link that had stretched open when Glenn yanked it from my neck hadn’t snapped—it was only bent out of shape. I reattached it to its neighboring link and pressed the silver back into shape to lock them together.

  Then I draped the pendant around my neck again, feeling instantly better with it resting in its usual spot against my sternum.

  When we reached the San Francisco city limits, Shane finally spoke again. His voice was tense. The full impact of what he’d seen had probably registered now that the shock of seeing his uncle die was wearing off.

  “Do you know where to find shelter?”

  Like I’d actually tell him where we would be hiding out.

  Yes, he’d been decent to us during this whole horrendous experience. He’d wanted to help us escape.

  But that was before we’d killed his uncle in front of his eyes. Chances were good he was feeling a whole lot less charitable toward us now.

  “It’s not your concern. Just get us to Nob Hill. I’ll give you turn by turn directions from there.”

  If only the sun had set already. While it was up, I had to fight daytime drowsiness. A few times during the drive, I nodded off and jerked awake again.

  If I were to fall soundly asleep like my friends, there was no reason to believe Shane wouldn’t drive to a police station and deliver the three of us like a neatly wrapped gift box.

  When we reached Sutter Street, I leaned forward a bit to give him instructions. “O
kay, try to find a spot somewhere along here.”

  We both kept our eyes peeled as we cruised past classic brick and terra cotta buildings, glass office towers, street-level eateries, and a beautiful art deco hotel.

  When my friend Larkin’s apartment building came into sight, I was thrilled—and a bit shocked to be honest—to see an open metered spot in front of it.

  “There,” I practically yelled, pointing to it.

  “I see it.” Shane maneuvered into the spot and parked.

  Larkin and I had become close friends when we’d both lived in LA. I’d visited her in San Francisco many times after she’d moved here.

  Naturally I hadn’t had the opportunity to call her since getting out of the Safety Center, but I knew she’d help us. Maybe she’d even lend us her car for the trip to LA. It was outfitted with sunshields and surround-view cameras for daytime driving.

  “We’ll get out here,” I said. “It’s a few blocks away.”

  “I’ll help you with them,” he said.

  “No. No thank you. I can handle it.”

  My plan was to cover my friends and myself with the blankets, watch Shane drive away, then dash inside the apartment building and drag Kelly and Heather to the elevator. Somehow.

  He peered into the back seat. “How? They’re dead asleep, and you’re about to pass out yourself. I know you’re strong, but you can’t carry them both. The sun’s still up. Your blankets could slip or something.”

  At that moment, the sun came out from behind a cloud and cast brilliant golden rays down on the street and sidewalk around us.

  It might as well have been a flashing neon sign reading “Danger Ahead.”

  My gaze bounced from Shane’s face to the apartment building’s sliding front doors and back to him. He was right. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized how stupid it would be of me to allow him to drive away.