Page 41 of The Clash of the Damned
My fangs snap out as my voice deepens. “I would like to see them try.”
“Oh put your fangs away, Luca. Yes, you’re a badass, but they have numbers. If we engage in a fight with them, yes, we will take some of themdown, but there is a very high chance we won’t make it out of here alive. I’m not willing to accept that. Are you willing to die in some dick measuring contest?”
She’s got a point.Shit.
“What’s the plan? I know you wouldn’t be here without one.”
Glancing at my bar fridge, she points. “If you have any spare blood, down it. You need to be at full strength. They’re scared of the Undead because of your connection with blood. Something about you being unholy.” She snorts. “Exploiting that is the first step in getting out of here.”
I do as she says and down the last two bottles. History be damned. We can go back to fighting with each other later. Then I go to the wall with all the pictures of my parents and the celebrities they’ve worked with over the years. I smash the glass out of my favorite, the three of us at the opening of Tao all those years ago. I couldn’t have been more than ten years old. Sticking the picture in my bra for safekeeping, I tell her, “A memento, just in case.”
“Follow me. We’re sneaking through the passages, like we used to in the old days.” I follow her in silence for what feels like hours, but is only minutes, as she takes the long way past the kitchen, where we launder money.
“You mentioned something about Gabe?” I prompt her.
She nods. “Sebastian and I have been working on getting answers from the cult.” She turns to look at me, and rubs her neck. “We haven’t been very successful, but today, Gabe called to let us know one of his CI’s had information we could find useful. There were rumours that the Undead were the next target, and this is an obvious place that fits their criteria. Itfelt stupid to ignore it, so I came to warn you. I would rather over-react and be wrong, than ignore it and be right.”
She turns back to leading the way out of Tao, and while I know the place better than her, I also know she has a plan. Right now, I’ll allow it.
“You know I can handle myself, right?” I ask her.
She turns to look at me briefly with a smirk and says, “I know you can. But if Sloane’s with them, neither of us stand a chance. Survival first, revenge second.”
Damnit, I hate it that she’s right, again. “We can’t outrun them I assume?”
“I thought about it. But if I have to carry you, it’s doubtful. I’m still training, and considering my later start in life as a Rogue, I’m not where I should be yet.” She becomes lost in thought for a second. “If Sebastian was here, he could do it. But he’s…occupied. Our only option is to outsmart them. I know what Tao means to you, Luca, but you can always rebuild if you have to. Your life is far more important than this structure.”
I can see the logic in what she says, but my heart is heavy as I think about all the memories here that I will never get a chance to say goodbye to. I hear glass crashing, and I flinch as I imagine the countless hours of work that went into building this place, and in one moment, they’re ripping it apart. They don’t get how many people we help with our businesses. I think about the humans I hire that will leave jobless in the morning. I tense, and Amelia holds me back. “Its not worth it,” she whispers. “They have help from Sloane in one way or another. Your life is more important.”
My fangs snap out in irritation as we wait for the looters to move on, and I whisper to Amelia, “Do they really hate us so much for beingdifferent?”
Giving me an incredulous look, she responds, “Come now, babe, we both know what that feels like. This could be just another casual Tuesday for us. People are scared of what they don’t understand.” Amelia cocks her head to the side and adds, “Someone’s coming. We’re going to have to go into the restaurant.” Her shoulders tense as she hears something I can’t. “It’s getting faster and louder, move!” She pushes me through a passage door and into the center of the restaurant. Creeping from one shadowed corner to another, we keep watch as we make our way towards the exit.
Something that looks like a bowling ball rolls in front of my feet, and Amelia freezes. “Please tell me that isn’t what I think it is,” she whisper yells at me.
“Oh no, it is what you think it is. It’s a human head.” I bend down and inspect it. “Correction, Undead head. And they say we’re the monsters.”
All our efforts to remain undiscovered go out the window. “Well look what we have here, boys! We have ourselves a little playtime,” a southern accent drawls as I turn to come face to face with a six foot man who is kitted out with a bulky bomb vest. Amelia stands a chance of surviving it if he detonates, but I’m not so sure I will.
“I was tired of hiding anyway,” I tell him.
He knows what I am, so there’s no point in trying to hide. Lifting my hands, I focus in on his blood, and I pull on it with everything I’ve got. Ripping his blood out of his body, I send it splatting against the wall behind him. Turning to Amelia, I say with a smirk on my face, “See? Told you I could take care of myself.”
“Oh sugar, really?” a new voice says as he enters the room. “You see, we were told about your demonic abilities. Kill one and another pops up,” he says as he waves a detonator in his hand. They all have bomb vests. Fuck.
“Run!” Amelia screams, and I listen, but everything around me goes dark.
Chapter 30 | What The Fuck
Luca
Something sharp bites into my back, and the pain forces me to open my eyes. The blazing inferno in front of me is enough to render me speechless. “What’s going on?” I sit up, trying to remove the debris from my back as pain shoots through my head. Amelia bends down next to me, ash across her face, and her hair is in disarray as she runs her hands over me, checking for injuries. I’m so disorientated that I don’t question the action.
“When he detonated that bomb, I needed to help you get out, but I could see you wouldn’t make it in time. I took the force of the blast as I helped you run out some of the way and carry you the rest.”
Silva crouches down to my other side. “Where did you come from?”
“Amelia called me just before she went in to get you, in case she needed Undead support she couldn’t offer.” The sound of glass shattering makes her turn back to the inferno in front of us, the heat pouring off in waves. “We’re in Tao’s parking lot.” It takes me a few seconds to catch up with what that actually means.
