Vengeance (The Captive #6)(83)
Arriving at her side, he rested his hand on her waist with the intention of lifting her up and throwing her over his shoulder. The door to the cell swung open, and she jumped back. “Stay with us if you want to live!” she croaked at the vampires pouring free of their cages.
William grabbed hold of her hand, not looking back as he tucked her against his side and pulled her toward the door. They rushed down the stairs of the prison and into the crowded street. Four of the vampires in the stocks outside resembled deer cooked over a spit. Their reddened, hairless bodies still had smoke and flames eating at their bodies. Three of the others were screaming in agony as fire licked over them.
Tempest slowed, but William tightened his hold on her and propelled her onward. “We have to help them!” she protested.
“There is no helping them,” he replied. Maybe they could still release them, and maybe somehow they would heal from the burns, but she was his number one concern right now. “And I’m getting you out of here.”
He kept her snug against his side as they plunged into the horde of vampires running up and down the street. He stiff-armed anyone who came near them, knocking them back before they could hurt her in anyway. Sparks and flames began to shoot from the pointed roof of the hotel. Looking up and down the road, he searched for anyone who might be coming after him, but he seemed to have been forgotten in the chaos of the fires and everyone trying to flee. Either that or they believed him already dead.
Wind whipped down the street, fanning the flames and sending them higher into the sky. From behind him, the loud crash of the prison folding in on itself reverberated through the street. He didn’t look back, but he felt the hot wash of the flames against his back when they blew outward.
“The wind,” she whispered, her voice barely carrying over the crescendo of the fire. “I didn’t expect the wind to pick up.”
“Neither did I.”
“I destroyed it all.” Her eyes were haunted as she tilted her head back to look up at him.
His fingers stroked over her cheek. “It was destroyed the minute they entered this town.”
She nodded, but he could feel the guilt and anguish radiating from her. He ignored the sting in his blistered hand when he wrapped it around her head and pulled her closer to him protectively. The cold air blowing against the numerous burn holes in his clothes cooled his burnt and reddened skin, giving him some reprieve from the tenderness of his body.
“Where’s the queen?” he inquired in a raspy voice.
“I don’t know,” Tempest replied. “It took me coming back to town to realize it, but if you look closely, the villagers who didn’t join with the invaders are running that way.” She pointed down the road toward where the barricade of soldiers was still trying to keep the flow of fleeing vampires back. Bodies littered the ground around the structure, but the soldiers were starting to lose the battle as the panicked vamps pushed against them more insistently. “The others are going the opposite way, like bees toward their queen. They’re going for the mountain road, but it’s extremely difficult to traverse, especially in the snow.”
“What’s on the other side of that road?”
“An end of the mountain chain, lakes, valleys, and more towns.”
“More vampires for them to try and convert,” he murmured.
“Yes,” she confirmed. “Lots more. There’s better land and weather outside of these mountains.”
A sinking sensation filled the pit of his stomach, but it didn’t matter. They couldn’t stop them from fleeing, not now; all they could do now was escape with their lives, and the little information he’d managed to learn about the woman claiming to be queen.
“You!” someone shouted. “You!” His head turned toward a white robed figure pointing at him in the street. “You’re the one the queen wants.”
“Son of a bitch!” he spat.
The figure in white charged at them, young, reckless and looking to make a place for himself amongst the side he’d joined. William swung Tempest behind him and released her before turning to face the young man. He wasn’t in the mood for anyone’s crap, especially not this hothead. With no regard for his vulnerable areas or even his life, the vampire put his head down and charged at him.
A snarl curved William’s lip; his arm shot out. Bone crunched and splintered apart beneath his fist as it drove through the man’s chest. Gurgled blood exploded from his mouth when William wrapped his hand around his heart. He held the man’s brown eyes before jerking backward and tearing the heart from his chest.
The vampires that had escaped from the prison with them fell back as the man’s twitching body flopped onto the ground. They glanced between him and the dead vamp before pressing closer against him and Tempest.
“Fool.” William dropped the heart on the ground and wiped the blood from his hand in the snow. Turning toward Tempest, he grabbed hold of her hand again and pulled her forward. “Don’t ever do what he just did,” he told her.
She glanced back at the prone body in the snow. “Protect your chest,” she muttered.
“Always.”
He cradled Tempest’s head against his chest as they ran in between two burning buildings. Bits of debris and sparks rained down upon them. Demon hands of fire leapt toward them, seeking to use their bodies as more fuel for its hungry flames. A cry of pain escaped her; he hurriedly brushed aside the cinders falling on her cheek.