Wolf Called, page 15
He was on me in a flash, his strength almost overwhelming me. He must be older than me—the more age a vampire had, the stronger they were. His fist smashed into my head and stars burst through my vision, exploding like iridescent fireworks.
Stunned, I reached for the gun, but the vampire kicked it away as he strode towards me. Leaning over my stunned body, he grabbed my hair, his expression contorting.
“Eye for an eye, William. How does it feel?”
He slammed my head against the wall, and the world blurred. When he ripped out the knife, I hissed, not giving him the pleasure of hearing me howl in pain. And when he shoved me onto my side and smashed my head into the ground, I knew I was a goner.
They knew we were here.
And I’d been lured into their trap.
I shouldn’t have spoken to her like that, I thought as my thigh burned and my head swirled. Now she’s on her own.
She’s alone, and she hates me. She thinks…
My head collided with the floor again, and as the world faded, I saw the vampire aim the gun at my heart.
“Darling…”
I stirred, my eyes taking their sweet time adjusting to the brightness.
“William, are you all right?”
I blinked, dazed. The sun shone overhead, and the air was full of the salty tang of the ocean. Focusing on the woman in front of me, my limbs went numb.
“Loretta?”
The wind tossed her chestnut hair around and a strand caught on her pink lips. She swiped it away and laughed, the sound pulling at my heart.
“You’ve had too much sun,” she said. “Just one more minute, and we’ll go back, I promise.”
“Where am I?” I murmured. Running my hands over my chest, I looked for a wound.
We were standing on a bluff overlooking the ocean. I could see white chalk cliffs in the distance, hear the crash of the waves below, and feel the sun on my shoulders. I remembered this day—the last we’d had together by the cliffs of Dover on the coast of England.
I also remembered being on a train with Sloane in Australia well over a century later.
“It’s okay,” Loretta said. “It’s been a long time.”
She rose to her feet and walked towards me, her eyes full of an understanding I didn’t recognise. Her fingers closed around mine.
“A picture won’t fill the hole in your heart,” she whispered, the wind tugging her words.
“What did you say?” I asked with a frown.
Her gaze met mine. “She needs you, William.”
“Who?”
Loretta smiled, her hands cupping my face. “It’s okay to let me go. It’s okay to love again.”
“But…”
The light dimmed around us and I shivered, my chest throbbing with a hot pain. My knee buckled, but I didn’t fall. My gaze was caught on Loretta’s, and she held me upright.
“One hundred years…” I whispered.
She nodded. “It’s time, don’t you think?”
“I…”
My vision blurred, and I groaned, my head lolling from side to side. Blinking, the haze cleared. I was surrounded by empty luggage racks and a trail of my blood smeared across the floor.
The ground moved beneath me, the sound of wheels clicking over tracks bringing clarity back. I lifted my head with a groan as life began to move through my withered veins. I’d desiccated, the wooden bullet tearing through my heart…but I was still alive.
Hauling myself up, my head spun and my entire body felt clammy. The talisman. I rubbed my hand against my healed chest, the brand tingling with fading magic.
Not even death could free me. Forever a slave.
No time for self-pity, I thought with a grimace. I have to get to Sloane. I have to find her…
The train car was empty outside the luggage compartment.
Dragging myself down the corridor, I stumbled into the next carriage and back to our compartment. Wrenching the door open, I frowned when I saw our stuff strewn all over the seat and floor. Immediately, I knew Sloane had run, which could only mean…
They had her.
I opened the door and scanned the hallway. I had to find her before we reached the next station or she’d be gone forever.
Glancing to the right, I knew she wouldn’t have gone that way—that was the way she thought I’d went. Turning left, I limped down the hall and into the next car, my withered body crying out for blood.
When I found that ginger vampire and his mates, they were going to wish they’d never been born. I’d drain them dry and make them beg.
I’d unleash the monster within. The monster they’d created.
Chapter 26
Sloane
Chaser was dead.
The realisation burned through me, tearing everything apart. My heart, my mind, my body, my soul… That was how I knew my feelings weren’t a passing fancy. I wouldn’t be able to forget him, no matter what I did. If he’d dumped me at Fortitude and ridden off into the sunset, I would’ve pined after him for the rest of my life like a stupid little girl.
Chaser was a part of me now, whether I wanted him or not.
“Why don’t you just kill me?” I asked, my voice sounding almost robotic to my ears. “Just end it.”
The conductor snorted. “You’ll love being a blood slave, Betty. We’ve got grand plans for you. The sacrifice will go ahead and once it does, no one will be able to stand against us.”
I stared numbly out the window, my entire body feeling listless in my despair.
I should’ve done something. Fought back, tried to end it, but everything was just out of reach. My fingertips scraped the edges of caring about my fate, but I couldn’t quite grasp it.
Chaser was dead.
I shouldn’t have said those things to him. I was angry. Upset. He had a life before me. Of course, he did. So had I.
“She’s giving up,” the conductor mused. “Can you see it in her eyes?”
Bailey leaned over me and stared into my face. His breath stank like rancid meat, and I growled, kneeing him as hard as I could in the balls. He doubled over with a cry, grasping his crotch as the other vampire laughed.
Bailey let out a cry of rage and fisted my hair. “You’ll never escape. This is your life, wolf. A glorified blood bag. That’s all it’ll ever be.”
“We’ll see about that,” I drawled. “I know what I am.”
“You’re lying.”
Bailey raised his hand, but before he could hit me, the door slid open, and I gasped as my gaze collided with Chaser.
The conductor pulled a gun with a snarl, and I cried out, but Chaser was too fast. He slammed the heel of his palm against the vampire’s wrist, forcing the gun to the side as it went off.
The boom was deafening in the small space, and my ears rang as the two vampires wrestled.
Bailey lunged, desperate to join in the fray, but I was on him in a flash. I kicked his knee out from under him, forcing him to buckle to the floor with an angry grunt.
I threw myself on him and fisted my hands in his greasy, ginger hair. Slamming his face into the floor, I let out an enraged cry, the wolf within awakening with a lust for violence I’d never felt before.
Strength surged through my veins and I growled, succumbing to the wildness within.
“Bitch!” Bailey howled. “You turned. You turned!”
We were squashed in the room like sardines in a tin, but I was hardly aware of what Chaser was doing. The gun hadn’t gone off again and there was still movement around me as I tried to bash Bailey’s face in.
The vampire bucked underneath me, and the force dislodged my grasp. I fell back against the seat and thrashed as his hands closed around my neck.
“Choke, little wolf,” he snarled through a mouthful of blood. “Your pack won’t save you now.”
I clawed at him, desperate to finish the job as I gasped for air. Not today. Not like this.
A body fell to the floor beside me, and I kicked, thrashing against Bailey’s hold. Then Chaser was standing over us.
Without a single shred of hesitation, he rammed a bloodstained hand through Bailey’s back and kicked him to the side, ripping his heart clean from his chest. Instantly, the hands around my neck slackened, and I gasped, coughing as air rushed into my starving lungs.
Grabbing me underneath the arms, Chaser hauled me out of the room and into the hall, away from the blood.
It was all over in a matter of minutes, and I stared at Chaser with something close to awe. I’d seen him in action before, but this was something else. He was a whirlwind of death, precise and brutal. A shadow…
My eyes filled with tears. “I thought you were dead.”
“I was,” he replied, his grip loosening. He stepped away from me, limping heavily.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “You don’t mean literally, do you? Do you?”
He didn’t reply, which was his typical response when he didn’t feel like explaining anything.
“Help me,” he said after a moment, reaching down and grasping the conductor’s wrists. He dragged the body down the hall, having some difficulty.
“What are you doing? What if—”
“These cars are empty,” he said. “No one will see us. It was a trap from the start.”
I lowered my gaze, trying not to look at the bodies on the floor.
“Give me a hand.”
I grimaced and lifted the first vampire by the ankles. He was all grey and withered…but he was still warm.
We leaned him in the alcove by the outer door, and then went back for what was left of Bailey. My stomach rolled as I caught the gaze of their empty eyes.
Chaser wiped his bloodied hands on the dead vampire’s clothes, then forced the outer door open. I grasped the handrail as wind whipped through my hair. The ground was rushing past at a terrifying speed, and it’d only take one stumble in the wrong direction to fall. One little misstep, and I would be dragged underneath the train and onto the tracks.
I glanced at Chaser and nodded when his gaze met mine. I was ready.
Together, we lifted what was left of the vampires and rolled them out the door. As their bodies hit the ground, the sound of their flesh being torn apart by the train made me wince.
I turned away, and the noise was cut off as Chaser heaved the door back into place.
“Why isn’t the train stopping?” I asked. “Surely there’s an emergency procedure…”
“Let’s get our stuff,” he said, ignoring my question. “The next station is only minutes away. We need to be gone before they find what we left behind.”
Picking up my bag, I followed him up the stairs, not liking the way he limped. I could see the pain he was doing his damnedest to ignore.
“Chaser?” I asked as we moved down the hall and back into our carriage.
He grunted as he opened the door to our compartment.
“Are you sure you’re all right? You said… You said you were dead.”
“I need blood,” he replied. “But we don’t have time.”
“But—”
“Sloane, please.”
I tensed, my questions dying before they reached my lips, and I nodded.
Scooping up my things, I shoved them into my duffel as the landscape outside filled with power lines and buildings—the station was almost upon us.
When we were done, we moved down the corridor and waited by the outer door of the carriage. My skin prickled in anticipation as the train rolled into the station. Chaser looked unnaturally grey, his veins bulging a little too much. He was a borderline mummy.
“How do we do this?” I asked, staring fretfully at the platform. “Are you strong enough to do your mind trick thing?”
“Compulsion,” he corrected. “And no, we’re gong to have to do this the old-fashioned way.”
I grimaced. “Run?”
“Put your head down and walk,” Chaser told me. “Act natural and don’t panic.”
“Sounds easy when you say it like that.”
“Follow my lead and we’ll slip right out of here.”
I hoped he was right.
The train finally came to a stop, the brakes screeching. The moment the doors disengaged, I forced it open and we stepped out onto the platform. Chaser winced, but he never made a sound.
Putting my head down, I linked my arm through his, and we walked down the platform with the other disembarking passengers. I startled as a group of uniformed men from the train walked toward us, but they passed without looking twice.
“Keep walking,” Chaser murmured as a commotion broke out behind us.
Swallowing hard, I resisted the urge to look back. People around us were already stopping to see what all the fuss was about, but we kept moving.
We turned into the main building, passing noticeboards and waiting areas. Our footsteps were muffled by the commotion of passengers coming and going. Loved ones embraced, taxi drivers loaded luggage into the boots of their cars, people rolled suitcases towards a bus stop, and we melted into the scenery.
Exiting the building, we walked down the street, disappearing into the wilds of the little town of nowhere, Victoria.
No one called out or chased us down.
No one tried to stop us.
No one at all.
Chapter 27
Sloane
Bringing the car to a stop, I rolled down the window and looked for Chaser.
I didn’t see him at first and my heart twisted in my chest, but then he emerged out of the shadows like a ghost. He was exactly where I’d left him half an hour ago when I’d gone off to find us a more reliable means of transportation.
He slid into the front passenger seat, dumping his bag at his feet. Once he’d shut the door and clipped his seat belt on, I turned back onto the road, heading away from the train station and towards the highway.
“You look pale,” I said, placing my palm on his forehead.
He swatted me away. “I’ll be fine.”
The sun was shining overhead, a few wisps of white streaked through the blue, and the road was open before us.
All the death hadn’t quite caught up with me yet. Autopilot was engaged, and all I knew was one destination. The one we’d been aiming for all this time. Fortitude.
“Do you think the cops will come after us?” I asked, not liking the silence between us.
“I doubt it.”
“We’ve left DNA and fingerprints clear across the country,” I argued. “Haven’t you ever seen that TV show CSI?”
“They had enough clout to seal off several cars of that train, Sloane. Believe me when I say, they’re connected enough to clean up the trail of destruction we’ve left across the country…and that’s not taking compulsion into consideration. The only people coming for us now are them.”
“Ironically, that’s extremely helpful,” I drawled.
“They want this off the record.”
“Who are they? I think I’ve earned the right to know the name of the vampires who’ve chased us clear across the country.”
“They have a lot of names.”
“Such as?”
“The Marauders. The Vanguard. The Hollow Men.”
I snorted. “Are you serious?”
Chaser grunted. “Their leader is called The King.”
“The King?” I scowled and tightened my grip on the wheel. “What kind of name is that?”
“Did they say anything while you were with them?”
I shrugged. “They said something about a sacrifice.”
Chaser cursed. He knew…of course he did. I snorted and fixed my gaze on the road ahead. We had a six-hour drive ahead of us, so there was no use debating the supposed fate of daddy’s little girl, or that would make for a tense ride to Fortitude. We hadn’t even talked about the other thing. Us and…her.
“Pull over,” Chaser demanded, startling me.
“What? Why? We’ve got to find you a warm body to counteract all that mummification…unless you want to drink from me.” I shivered. “Maybe that’s a little too personal.”
“Sloane. Stop.”
Sighing, I slowed the car and eased off the road. Stopping, I turned off the engine and stared out the front windscreen, listening to the sound of a truck whooshing past.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear whatever he was going to say, either. After everything we’d been through on that train… Actually, I didn’t want to know.
“I need to explain,” he said.
Screwing my eyes shut, I held onto the wheel and said a silent prayer. I was already broken. I didn’t need an explanation as to why he acted the way he did. He would only dump salt into the open wound.
“A century ago—”
“No,” I snapped.
“If you want to survive, you need to understand all of it, Sloane.”
I said nothing. I could feel Chaser’s gaze burn into the side of my face and I began to tremble. I should have stayed a wolf…
“I worked with them,” he said. “I knew them as the Hollow Men.”
My mouth fell open, and I turned to stare at him. Another truck flew past, shaking the car, but I couldn’t speak.
Chaser took out his wallet from the bag at his feet and slipped the photograph of the woman out of the soft leather. He stared at it, his expression twisting.
He sensed me staring and turned it over. Writing was scrawled over the back, that old-fashioned cursive that was impossible to read, but I could make out just enough to know it was a name and a date.
“Loretta,” he said after a long moment. “Her name was Loretta.”
I knew I was supposed to say something reassuring, but I didn’t have it in me. I was frozen, completely numb. A pretty name to match her pretty face. He’d said it with such…love.
“I couldn’t protect her anymore,” he went on. “She saved my life, but I couldn’t save hers.” He lowered his gaze and slipped the photograph back into his wallet. “When I first turned, I was lost. I couldn’t handle what I’d become, the things I’d done…so I turned it all off. My humanity was in shreds. I’d made a name for myself by tearing through half of England, leaving a bloody trail behind me. A trail that the Hollow Men had picked up.”
