Warrior (Relentless #4)(114)

Releasing her, I stepped back. “I’m sorry. I did not mean to…”

She flinched and looked down, her cheeks rosy with embarrassment.

My chest ached as self-loathing filled me. It killed me to see her in distress and to know I had caused it.

“Sara –”

“No.” She whispered the word, but I could hear the tears in her voice.

Every part of me wanted to reach out to her, but it felt like a chasm stretched between us. I stood there for a long moment, waiting for her to meet my eyes again. But she refused to look at me.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly before I turned and walked away from her.

It was the hardest thing I had ever done.





Chapter 21





I pulled my sword from the dead vampire and stepped over him to the large winding staircase. Halfway up the stairs, I heard a muted scream from somewhere on the first floor, but I resumed my silent climb to the second floor. The others would handle whatever was happening down here. I had a more important mission to tend to.

The vampire came at me as soon as my foot touched the landing. He was fast, but not as fast as I was, and I sliced him across the midsection before he could reach me.

He cried out and grabbed at his stomach as he stumbled backward. Hate blazed in his eyes as I advanced on him. He turned to run, and I decapitated him before he took a step. His body crumpled to the floor as his head rolled down the stairs.

I looked both ways at the row of closed doors on the second floor. Standing still, I let my Mori hearing search for movement.

To my left, I picked up a muffled cry. With grim determination, I moved down the hallway and came to a stop in front of one of the doors. I listened again. From inside the room, I heard a child’s frightened sob.

I stared at the door, planning my next move. There would be at least one vampire in the room, if not more, but if I waited for the others to reach me, it might be too late for the children.

A sound behind me alerted me to the arrival of another vampire. I spun to face him and saw the shock on his face as my sword went through his chest.

He let out a gurgling cry as I withdrew my blade. Instead of plunging it in him again to finish him off, I grabbed him by the shoulders and hurled him through the closed door.

The door crashed inward and slammed against the wall as the vampire landed in a heap at the feet of a female vampire crouched in the middle of the room. The blonde vampire showed me her bloody fangs and held her clawed hands defensively in front of her. Blood dripped from her chin, and I feared I was too late.

A whimper to my right had me glancing at the two young children huddled in the middle of the large bed. We’d gotten word two days ago from Salt Lake City that a pair of orphans had been found. But before the team could retrieve them, vampires had gotten to them. No one, especially not me, had expected to find them alive.

The boy had his arms wrapped protectively around his twin sister, whose face was buried against his neck. The shoulder of her top was blood-soaked, and her body shook from her sobs. Long dark hair spilled down her back, looking so much like Sara’s that I almost shook from the fury boiling inside me.

I gave the vampire my full attention.

She licked blood from the corner of her mouth and sneered at me. “You interrupted my meal. Such a delicacy, young Mohiri blood. So sweet and rich.”

“Consider it your last supper,” I answered coldly, not rising to the bait.

Her brows drew together slightly when she realized she wasn’t going to goad me into making a rash move. She began to walk around me in a wide circle. Her slow, practiced movements told me she was more deadly than the others I’d killed in the house. She wouldn’t die as easily, but she was going to die today.

I watched her eyes, and I saw them flick to my left a split second before she blurred.

A burst of speed from my Mori saved me from her attack, although her claws managed to score my upper arms. She didn’t escape unscathed either, screaming when my blade cut a deep furrow in her chest.

Most vampires would need a few seconds to recover from such a strike. This one whirled almost instantly and flew at me again.

There was no time to bring up my sword, so I caught her and flung her across the room. She slammed into the wall so hard the plaster crumbled.

She was back on her feet in less than a second, but her smile was less confident. “You’re a strong one, but I’m no fledgling. Once I’m done with you, I’m going to drain those two little morsels.”

My gaze flicked to the two children, and I found the boy watching me with fear-glazed eyes. No child should have to endure what these two had suffered. Their mother had been slaughtered before their eyes, and they’d spent the last two days being terrorized by her killer. It was a wonder they were still alive.

I smiled at the vampire’s false bravado. She might be old and as strong as me, but I’d spent my life hunting her kind. “Let’s get this over with then.”

Her grin faltered, and I saw it in her eyes the moment she shifted from fight to flight mode. The only reason vampires like her lived this long was because they ran when faced with a real threat.

When she feinted toward the door, I was ready for her, and I was at the window a second before she reached it. My sword came up as she flew over my head and crashed through the glass. She screamed as she fell, and I looked through the broken pane to see her writhing on the lawn as two warriors sped around the corner.