Tina Gerow Read online

  Logan glanced over at his knife and wished for his shotgun. Sighing, he admitted, “You’re right. But just because you are better equipped to fight them, doesn’t mean the vamps will let me sit on the sidelines quietly—not even if I was willing to. Which I’m not.”

  Ariel turned to face him, her brows knit with concern, her full lips curved down into a frown. “How about a compromise?”

  “Fair enough. What did you have in mind?” Compromise would be better than her asking him to let her fight them alone.

  “My wings are pretty indestructible. Not impervious, but almost. If we fight back to back, they won’t be able to surround you, and you’ll get some protection from my wings.” After a slight pause, she added, “And it will help keep me from being surrounded as well.”

  Logan knew she’d added the last comment for the benefit of his ego. He’d seen her when she fought the zombies. Being surrounded didn’t necessarily hinder her. He sighed. She made an effort to sooth his pride, the least he could do was let her. “Bring your wings out and let’s test it. I still need to be able to maneuver, or the knife is useless.”

  Ariel turned her back on him. Her fairy wings tattoo glinted softly in the waning daylight and he could resist stepping close and tracing the edges gently with his fingers. Ariel shivered and then spun away from him, her face flushed, her breathing labored.

  “Now isn’t the time for that,” she snapped at him.

  He let her see his satisfied smile. “Maybe not. But it proved you’re not immune to me. So, let’s see those wings.”

  She stood glaring at him for a full minute and then suddenly her wings just were. It still amazed Logan to watch them materialize out of nothing. Extending his index finger, he twirled it slowly in the air until she turned her back on him again. He faced away from her and stepped back so her wings protected his sides and his back.

  “Try swinging the knife. And don’t worry. My wings are tough enough to withstand that blade. It takes something heavily supernatural to even nick them.”

  Logan stabbed at an invisible partner a few times, trying to ensure a full range of motion. Then he swung his hand back over his shoulder to start a larger swing. His hand connected with Ariel’s wing and bounced off returning the knife in a downward arc toward his stomach. He stopped the motion of the knife just in time to keep from impaling himself.

  Ariel coughed, a bad cover for her laugh. “Yeah, I’d watch that. They’re pretty rubbery.”

  Logan saw Ariel’s smirk as she looked back over her shoulder and through her wings. He ignored her. Curious, he reached out and touched her wing. It was warm and smooth, almost soft. But

  when he squeezed, it had the consistency of a car tire. Hard and rubbery.

  “So, what do you think?” she asked.

  “Cool,” he said chuckling and squeezing the wing again between his fingers like a brand new stress ball.

  Ariel snorted and shook her head. “I meant about the fighting back to back.”

  The reek of evil filled Logan’s nostrils and he coughed as panic skittered up his spine. “It will have to do. They’re here.” Darkness descended quickly, but the moon shone full, so they could still see. Stars began to dot the black velvet of the sky.

  “They’re close,” she corrected. “If they are projecting fear, there’s an ancient with them. Be very careful.”

  “Let’s go.”

  They made their way down the side of a hill and into a small clearing next to a stream.

  “Let’s make a stand here,” Logan whispered. “Enough room to fight without getting caught from someone hiding. And it’s the best use of the moonlight so we can see to fight.”

  “You mean, some-thing,” Ariel said. “But I agree.”

  “Can’t we just fly out of here if they get too close?” Logan asked.

  “Unfortunately, vamps can fly too.”

  “Damn, it’s always something.”

  Logan’s skin began to crawl as if hundreds of bugs crept just under the surface trying to escape. He shuddered. Get a grip or they’ll beat you. Taking his own advice, he closed his eyes, took a calming breath and let it out slowly. When he opened them again, the creepy sensation was gone along with his fear. Only his concern for Ariel remained.

  The sound of clapping hands broke the stillness of the forest and a man in an expensive suit stepped out of the trees and into the clearing. Logan couldn’t tell if the material was grey or blue, but he looked out of place among the conifer and pine needles. But even beyond that, Logan had the nagging feeling he’d met him before. The man’s presence reeked evil and ancient. This must have been the vampire Ariel meant.

  “Bravo, Logan. I’m impressed,” said the man, interrupting Logan’s thoughts.

  The deep voice reverberated through the clearing and tickled at the edges of Logan’s memory. He’d heard this voice before, but he couldn’t remember where.

  “And forgive me for being rude. Greetings to your gargoyle whore as well.” The man sketched a mock bow toward Ariel, a sardonic smile plain on his face.

  Logan took a step forward and then realized he was being goaded as Ariel grabbed his arm and the vampire burst out laughing. The cultured laugh irritated Logan and ripped across his skin like talons. “Who the hell are you?”

  “You may call me Nicholas. After all, we’re almost related.”

  Ariel tightened her grip on Logan’s arm, no doubt to keep him from doing something stupid, like getting into a pissing contest with an ancient vampire. He laid his hand over hers and squeezed it in reassurance. He had no intention of dying today or of letting anything happen to Ariel. Although it would be satisfying to break a few of the blinding white vampire teeth grinning at them that were visible even in the moonlight.

  Turning his attention back to Nicholas, he said, “I don’t see how that’s possible.”

  “You and I both shared your mother.” His cultured laugh rang out again and Logan saw a flash of his mother’s face, her eyes cold and staring, her mouth still open in a silent scream. “You may have had her first, but I definitely had her last. And she was delicious, I might add.”

  Logan saw himself as a young boy running down the stairs in his pajamas, following his mother’s screams. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw Nicholas bent over his mother, drinking from the gaping wound in her neck. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

  “Logan!”

  His legs still rubbery and weak, Ariel’s voice brought him back to reality. After years of his subconscious bubbling scraps of memories into his nightmares and even his waking hours, he finally had all of the puzzle pieces. He glared at Nicholas with all of the hatred and pain of losing his mother.

  “Interesting,” said Nicholas and took another small step forward, half his face erased in shadows. “I erased your memory all those years ago. No one has ever broken through my mind block. Care to tell me who your father is? Your mother refused, that’s why she’s dead.” Emphasis on the last word made it feel like a knife thrust straight into Logan’s gut.

  Logan wouldn’t tell this man who is father was even if he knew. There was only his mother. And his aunt and uncle said they never knew who’d fathered him. But now he knew who’d taken his mother from him. “Go to hell, you bastard.” Ariel placed a comforting hand against his back and a measure of calm stole over him from the touch. Letting Nicholas stir his emotions would get them both killed. He’d have time to grieve for his mother after he’d taken his revenge.

  “Let’s all go, shall we?” Nicholas laughed and it echoed around them in a macabre whirlwind. “Once I kill you and the child of blood, the world will belong to the Dark One.”

  The sky suddenly darkened further with angry wisps of clouds that floated in front of the moon. Streaks of lightning punctuated the tension with angry barks of thunder.

  Logan sensed more vampires behind them and stepped behind Ariel to assume their back-to-back fighting stance. Immediately, several vampires stepped out into th
e clearing, all of them dressed for a boardroom instead of the forest. In another circumstance, he’d think it funny, but the situation was too dire to see the irony now.

  Ariel assumed a fighting stance behind him, but she kept her wings slightly extended to offer him maximum protection. He appreciated the gesture. She’d been right about him not being equipped to fight these creatures. He still remembered when the vampire at his ranch had thrown him against the wall like he was a rag doll. And that was just one, not the dozen or so that surrounded them now.

  Alonna’s words sounded inside his head with unnerving clarity.

  “Your prophesy—and mind it well—is this. If you raise the son of your blood, he will become a champion for good. If you raise the daughter of destiny, she will swallow the world in darkness. If you cease to exist before your fated time, the son of your blood will avenge you with great rivers of dark blood and the heavens will shine on him.”

  Keeping an eye on all of the new vampires, he said, “If I cease to exist before my fated time, Nicholas, the son of my blood will avenge me and the heavens will shine on him. Meaning you’ll lose.” He said a silent prayer that Charity was still safe at the ranch with Dara and Odeda.

  “That’s only if he’s still alive to avenge you.” His eerie laugh rang out again, bristling along Logan’s skin. “Take them,” Nicholas barked to his vamp army.

  Ariel’s movement behind him told him she already fought behind him. The vampire directly in front of Logan winked at him, although he wasn’t sure how he knew that in the dark. Then the vamp became a streak of light tracking directly toward him, but he traveled in slow motion. Logan tracked the vamp’s progress and as soon as he materialized, Logan plunged the knife into his heart. There was a loud popping sound as the vamp’s body disintegrated and Logan screwed his eyes shut against the foul ashes.

  “Fools,” Nicholas called. “I told you he has something ancient and supernatural in his bloodline. Your vampire tricks won’t work on him.”

  Shock traveled through Logan at the statement. Could his unknown father have been an ancient being? I wonder if James knows who it is? After all, he was the only ancient being Logan knew besides the gargoyles. Then his body froze as another thought percolated through his brain. James had always been extremely protective of him. Had even treated him like a brother. Or had Logan just taken it for brotherly concern because he thought of James as a peer?

  “Logan,” Ariel called, breaking him out of his thoughts. “Watch your right side.”

  Logan slashed his knife to the right in time to slice a long hole in a very expensive looking suit jacket. It didn’t injure the vampire, but it did make him angry. The vampire lunged for him, talons extended, lips curled back to expose his fangs, but Ariel’s wing tip extended as she executed a front kick and it knocked the vamp back to land on his rear. As Ariel had to lunge to avoid a hit from another enemy, Logan almost lost his balance and fell outside of the protective area between her wings. But just as he began to fall, her left wing righted him. “Damn, you’re dexterous with those things!”

  “I’ve had nine-hundred years of practice,” she called over her shoulder.

  They fought for what seemed like hours and Ariel kept extending her wingspan to keep the vamps from getting too near Logan. And while his pride smarted at not being more involved in the fight, he knew she was right. He was no match for these beings.

  “Enough!” Nicholas’ deep voice reverberated through the clearing.

  The remaining vampires retreated to a loose perimeter surrounding Ariel and Logan.

  Nicholas stepped forward. “We’ve wasted enough time here today.” He held his arm out to the side and a new vamp emerged from the trees dragging Charity by one arm. Charity cried and whimpered, her makeup smeared down her face, her blouse torn.

  “Damn!” muttered Ariel under her breath.

  A band around Logan’s heart squeezed painfully. The baby. God, please. Protect my baby. Take me instead, or use me how you wish, just please keep him safe.

  A peal of thunder rang out quieting the world around it in awe. One small crack in the cloud cover opened, allowing a larger stream of moonlight to peek through. Logan smiled to himself grimly. I’ll take that as a yes.

  “Let her go, unharmed, Nicholas, and you can have me.”

  Ariel clamped her hand around Logan’s wrist. “Don’t, Logan. He’ll just kill you both.”

  Logan placed his hand over hers. “I have to do this. I can’t let my child die. Just remember I’ll always love you, Ariel.” He leaned in to kiss her tenderly and saw the sadness and the desperation in her eyes. But she reluctantly removed her hand from his wrist.

  “I find that an acceptable deal, Logan.” Nicholas pulled Charity away from the lesser vampire and pressed her in front of him. His hand resting on her softly rounded stomach. “Step away from your gargoyle whore and we’ll do a trade.”

  Logan gave Ariel’s hand a final squeeze, took several steps forward, and stopped. Nicholas pushed Charity and she stumbled forward toward Logan. “Charity, are you all right?”

  She lurched against him, and he brought his arms around her to steady her. When she tipped her face up to look at him, the cruel smile that crawled across her face, made him stop short. So did the gun she pulled from behind her back.

  She held the gun against his stomach and took a small step back. When she spoke, her voice was dangerous and low. “I’m perfectly all right, Logan. Especially since Nicholas has given me permission to kill you.” She pushed her hair back over her shoulder, all the while keeping the gun trained steadily on Logan’s stomach.

  Fear washed through him as he tried to understand this new turn of events. “What are you doing? Put the gun down.” He held his hands out to the side, palms open. “There’s no reason to kill me. I need to be around to raise our child, remember?”

  “Oh, you will. The child of Logan McAllister will be raised in the spotlight and will be the next prodigy of the music world. Especially after the tragic way her father died.”

  “Charity,” he began, his eyes widening as he saw her squeeze the trigger, a smug smile curving her lips.

  The deafening boom of the gunshot rang in his ears and the world slowed to molasses speed. He watched in petrified fascination as the bullet left the gun and crept toward him. He closed his eyes as he waited for the pain. But a whoosh of movement and a feminine grunt of pain caused him to open them again.

  Ariel lay on the ground beside him, a large hole blossoming blood from her chest. She’d jumped in front of him to shield him from the bullet. “No!” He knocked the gun from Charity’s hand and then retrieved it and rushed to Ariel’s side. He breathed a sigh of relief when she opened her eyes to look at him. The blue depths swam with pain, but she gripped the hand he offered. He pulled off his shirt and pressed it to the wound, but the hot thick fluid that was Ariel’s life kept pouring forth. “Turn to stone,” he whispered to her through his tears. “I’ll protect you while you heal yourself.”

  “I can’t,” she said back. She reached up to cradle his face in her hand. “It will kill our baby.”

  “Bitch!” Charity screamed. “I knew you were carrying the child of blood. I’ll kill both of you!” She started forward, but one of the vampires grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back.

  “We need the child of destiny safe, hellcat,” he told her.

  Logan felt numb. Ariel carried the child of his blood. That was what she hadn’t wanted to tell him, because she thought she carried the child of his destiny. So she’d kept it from him to try to protect him from raising the child, which would allow evil to rein. Everything finally clicked into place. A dangerous calm flowed through his veins and all his fear and doubt receded.

  Logan stood over Ariel and faced Nicholas. Words flowed through his mind and knew he had to say them aloud. “I claim Ariel as the mother of my son—the child of blood. The child, who is blessed by God Herself. And I’ll protect them both with my life and my eternal soul.�
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  Nicholas growled low in his throat.

  James flew across the sky faster than he ever had in his long existence. The last rays of sunlight stung against his skin, but he ignored the irritating discomfort. He knew in the back of his mind, the only part still rational, that it would drain his power and he would be vulnerable to being noticed on modern radar. But the front of his mind had decreed he get to Logan as fast as possible, everything else be damned—even if he was sighted or shot down as a UFO or spy plane.

  He opened a mental link he’d never used before, his link with his son, with Logan. If Logan’s life were in danger, taking the chance another vampire would sense and understand their connection was worth the risk. The link snapped into being as if they had been using this form of communication since Logan’s birth. James sensed a vampire charging Logan and used his own abilities to allow Logan to track the vampire’s movements.

  He returned his attention to flying and gauged how far away he still had to travel. Probably another ten minutes or so, he guessed. But James’ parental joy was short-lived as he received a flood of anguish and emotional pain through their link. Concentrating, he allowed himself to see through Logan’s eyes and the sight made him falter and lose altitude. Ariel lay dying, a gaping wound marring her chest, her eyes filled with love and pain.

  James jerked as he fell into someone’s arms and was propelled forward. He opened his eyes to see Dara’s worried frown. He took a breath to tell them about Ariel and then realized through their link with her, they already knew. Feeling he had to say something, he said, “Thanks, I can’t remote view and fly.” He glanced to either side to see Odeda and Kefira flying hard, intent on their goal.

  Dara’s leaned close to his ear so the wind wouldn’t steal her words. “We can’t remote view, but we can feel her dying. You view, we’ll fly.”

  James nodded and closed his eyes to concentrate. The rushing sky fell away, replaced by Logan’s view of Nicholas. “Bastard!” he shook with fury and Dara’s arms clamped around him more firmly. He forced himself to keep his eyes tightly shut so as not to sever the remote viewing link. For the benefit of the gargoyles, he said, “Nicholas, another ancient, and six other vamps are facing Logan and he’s only armed with a hunting knife. Ariel has a chest wound, but Logan packed it with his shirt, so I can’t tell what kind. She must be pretty weak if she’s not healing herself.”