Kiss of Steel
Page 39
A steady thrum-thrum-thrum started to drone overhead. Honoria glanced up. “What’s that noise?”
“The draining factories,” Leo muttered. “We’re directly beneath them. That noise is probably the steam engines on the filtration machines.”
The tall, grim man who led the Nighthawks held up his hand with a closed fist. They all stopped in their tracks, and Honoria peered over Blade’s shoulder.
“What is it?” she whispered.
The guild master shot her a hawkish glare, his eyes hunting the shadows.
Blade grabbed her by the wrist and shoved her to the side, hovering over her protectively. “Be still, luv,” he murmured. “It’s too quiet in ’ere. And somethin’ stinks.”
You mean, apart from the usual? Her nostrils had shut down long ago.
Someone lit a flare stick. It hissed to life with a phosphorescent glow, and curses lit the tunnel as they all tried to adjust to the glare.
Suddenly Blade clapped a hand to his ears, his teeth bared in pain. The other men around them echoed his motions.
“What’s wrong?” she shouted.
Tin Man stared at her over Blade’s bent back. And then the path of his gaze drifted over her shoulder and his eyes widened.
Honoria spun on her heel. There was a flash of corpse white, and then one of the Nighthawks went down with a scream, the one holding the flare stick. The stick splashed into the water, still burning beneath the dirty sludge. The immediate phosphorescence dimmed.
“Get ’er out of ’ere,” Blade snapped to Tin Man, shoving her roughly into his arms.
The scream cut off abruptly, and then several pistols retorted with brief, spitting flares of light.
Honoria’s hand was shaking as she drew her pistol. Tin Man hauled her into a side tunnel, the hook on his hand held defensively.
“Blade!” she screamed.
He was lost in the shadows and the melee. Pistol fire barked in the main tunnel, and men shouted in confusion.
“It’s too narrow in ’ere! Stop firin’!”
Honoria stilled. That was Blade’s voice. She pushed forward, evading Tin Man’s grip as she peeked around the corner. There were floating corpses everywhere. Blade’s pale hair came into view, dragging a screaming, mangled body back to safety. Leo was at his side, holding a hand against his thigh and limping.
The tunnels ahead intersected. The vampire had lain in wait for them, using the narrow depths to its advantage. Where was the metaljackets’ handler? They stood still and silent, the bluish glow in the empty sockets of their eyes powered down to a mute flicker of light.
With the shadows and the slowly dying flame of the flare stick, she could barely see. Only by following the sounds of screaming could she track the vampire.
She saw Blade’s body stiffen as he looked up, and then he was dropping the body he was dragging and reaching for his knife. Leo moved to grapple the white blur streaking toward them but stumbled in the knee-deep water.
Before Honoria knew what she was doing, she was running forward and screaming, “No!”
The creature hit Blade, who staggered backward, his serrated knife punching into his attacker’s side. A high-pitched squeal echoed at the edge of hearing, and Blade flinched as the sound cut through him. He went down with a splash.
She couldn’t use the pistol without hitting him. Tucking it at her belt, she threw herself at the creature and screamed in its face. Somehow she managed to halt the deadly strike of its slashing claws.
Filmy white eyes met hers. The stink of it was strong enough to cut through the stench of the tunnels. She could taste it in her mouth, thick and rancid, like old grease.
A backhand caught her by surprise. She went sailing through the air, her body crumpling against the wall of the tunnel. A shaft of pain went through her shoulder, and her head rocked at the impact. In the dim light she could see the creature’s hand strike down into the body beneath it. Blade.
“Father! No!” Stumbling forward once more, she caught at the rigid tendons in the vampire’s wrist and pulled futilely.
Blade’s face came out of the water with a gasp, blood spreading through the swampy muck.
“I can help you! I can help you!” Honoria yelled, tears streaming down her face. The hand beneath hers suddenly shifted.
Blade dragged himself against the wall, cradling his side. Their eyes met and Honoria deliberately put herself between him and the vampire.
“Don’t,” he gasped. “Run, you bloody fool woman.”
So close. The vampire’s nostrils sniffed the air as it turned to face her. She let its arm go, drawing the pistol from her belt. “I can help you.” A whisper.
Honoria stared at the creature who had once been her father. There was no resemblance now, though she looked for it. The irony was cruel. Her proud, anti–blue blood father would have hated this end of his existence.
Honoria’s hand shook as she lifted the pistol. The vampire quivered as it stared at her, head drifting side to side as it fought the base hunger of its nature.
The vampire tried to say something. Its lips stretched over vicious, needle-sharp teeth stained with blood. Please.
Its hand caught hers and dragged the pistol to its forehead.
“Lena and Charlie miss you,” she sobbed. “And so do I.”
Gritting her teeth, her eyes hot with tears, Honoria leaned forward and pressed her lips against its cheek. “I love you,” she whispered. And then leaned back and pulled the trigger.
Explosive sound ricocheted through the tunnel. Blood sprayed, splattering across Leo’s face, and then the headless body slumped into the water, twitching.
Honoria’s hand dropped to her side. She could barely hold the pistol, she was trembling so hard. A glimmer of maggot-pale flesh gleamed in the dim light and then slowly sank beneath the surface of the water. He was gone. Again.
Don’t think. Just don’t think. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she stared. Father…
“He’s at peace, Honor,” Leo said.
“No thanks to you!” she spat, then gave him her back.
Blade leaned against the tunnel wall, struggling to sit up, his hand clapped to his side. There was blood all over him, some of it the viscous black of her father’s, the rest thick and blue.
Struggling to his side, she went to her knees. She could barely see for the tears that blinded her, but she managed to wipe them with her grimy sleeve. This was no time to fall apart. Blade needed her. “Let me have a look,” she said.
“She’ll ’eal,” Blade said. The look in his eyes suddenly darkened. “You bloody fool. What the ’ell did you think you were doin’?”
“Saving you,” she replied, rocking back on her heels at the sudden vehemence in his voice.
“I told you to—”
“I don’t give a damn!” she yelled. “I don’t care how many times you tell me to run, I won’t leave you behind!”
“Yes, you will,” he hissed. A grimace flickered over his face as he tried to sit up. “Damn you, Honoria. Seein’ you like that…in danger…it kills me.”
“He wasn’t going to hurt me.”
“’Ow do you know?”
“He was my father.”
Blade’s face darkened. “And Charlie’s your brother. And me? I’m your lover. You don’t think either of us could kill you? You don’t think there’s an ’ungry part of us that ain’t seen you as nothin’ more ’n blood? That’s wanted to ’urt you?” To her surprise, pain twisted his expression. “I would die a thousand times over to see you safe. Even from meself.”
“And I will never walk away,” she whispered, reaching out to press her palm against his cheek. There was a sudden thickness in her throat. “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s foolish. But I can’t help how I feel.”
A strangled sound came from Blade’s throat. He pressed her hand against his mouth and kissed it, his cool lips gliding over the palm.
A hydraulic hiss suddenly swept through the tunnel. Both of them looked up as the squad of metaljackets took a sudden step forward in eerie formation. Honoria held Blade’s hand, hovering protectively over him.
“What the hell…?” Leo broke off as the first metaljacket engaged its firing arm, pointing it directly at him. He froze, the blood burns from the vampire’s blood on his face standing out in stark relief.
Honoria’s breath caught as another metaljacket aimed at them. Leaning forward, she tried to cover as much of Blade’s body as she could, though the Spitfire’s fireball could consume them both easily.
Blade caught at her arm. “Don’t.”
A man stepped out of the shadows. The metaljackets’ handler. “I thought I recognized your face,” he said. “You’re the girl from the bounty sheet. The ten-thousand-pound girl.” Avarice gleamed in his pale eyes as he examined the scene. “Nobody move. You.” He gestured toward Honoria. “Come here.”
“Sterne.” A cool voice came out of the shadows, and Jasper Lynch stepped forward, bleeding heavily. “What are you about? Why didn’t you attack the vampire?”
“I did as commanded, Guild Master.” Sterne’s smile was vicious.
She could barely think with the trauma of events, yet the words sent her mind into a whirl. “Nobody was ever to make it out, were they?” she asked. “The vampire would be dead and Leo and Blade with it. Three of the prince consort’s enemies gone in one fell swoop with him left to cry false tears over the fallen ‘heroes.’” The thought sickened her, but she knew only too well how the Echelon worked.
Leo sucked in a breath, fury sliding harsh shadows over his face.
“Don’t.” Honoria held out a hand to stop him. “It’s futile.”
Blade caught at her fingers. “What are you about?” His voice was low and desperate, his gaze searching hers.
A fresh wave of tears scalded her cheeks. She stroked his face, fingers pausing on his lips. “Please look after Lena and Charlie.” Leaning close, she kissed his lips, but he caught her hands, dragging her face up, shaking his head.
“No. No!”
“He only wants me,” she replied.
Blade glanced at the towering metal legion. “We’re dead anyways.”
“Then use the water,” she whispered and pressed her pistol into his hands.
Black bled through his eyes. He was going to fight. Honoria took the choice away and stepped toward the handler.
“I’ll come for you,” Blade snapped as she stepped within reach of Sterne.
“Water,” she mouthed, meeting both his and Leo’s eyes.
“You won’t be going anywhere,” Sterne said as he grabbed her and dragged her behind the metaljackets.
There was a little click and then a roar as the Spitfire’s jets fired. Light blinded her, burning her eyeballs with the fury of its heat. The tears on her cheeks dried instantly, and her hair whipped behind her like a blazing corona. “No!”
When she could see again, the tunnel was scorched with thick black streaks of soot. There was no sign of the three men. Honoria’s heart pounded and she started forward, but Sterne grabbed her wrist.
“Don’t give me any trouble,” he hissed, grinding a knife into her spine. “And start walking.”
Honoria shot one last glance over her shoulder as the hulking metaljackets fell into step behind them. It might have been her imagination, but she thought she saw a ripple move on the surface of the water. Please.
A sob caught in her throat, but she swallowed it ruthlessly. The weight of emotion sitting on her shoulders was enough to drown her if she let it. She had to think. Had to keep her head.
For she knew that she was finally heading toward the confrontation she’d been fleeing from for months. She was now in the hands of Vickers.
Chapter 27
Water dripped somewhere in the darkness. Fire burned in Honoria’s hands. They’d been bound behind her so tightly that she’d long ago lost feeling in them. Occasionally she tried to wriggle her fingers, but it only shot a flash-fire of pain through them.
A black velvet hood covered her head, the golden tasseled ropes tied just tight enough around her throat for her to be aware of them. Though she had not seen him, she knew it to be Vickers’s personal touch. He overlooked nothing.
Honoria was afraid, not of darkness, but of the wait. The anticipation. Vickers had trained her body so well during the years that he’d stalked her. Goosebumps erupted along her flesh, and sweat trembled on her forehead. Each panicked breath she took was hot and refracted back into her face from the hood. She felt as if she were slowly suffocating inside it.
Fight it. She closed her eyes as a hiccuping gasp leapt up her throat. Don’t let him win.
But how was she ever to escape this? He would never let his guard down again, and the Ivory Tower’s dungeons were inescapable—for a mere human.
Tears leaked from her eyes, burning a trail down her cheeks. The only consolation was that Charlie and Lena were safe. Blade would protect them. She couldn’t have left them in better hands. That is, if he had survived.
Don’t, she told herself. She had lost her father. She could not bear to think of losing Blade too. He had to have survived. There had been that ripple in the water. And he was strong and clever and…injured. A groan choked in her throat. Don’t.
The thought of him alive was the only thing keeping her sane in this hellhole. Unless Blade ruined it all. Unless he came for her.
Honoria ground her teeth together. He wouldn’t. Though he might have escaped the tower once, he could never find his way back in and get her out safely. She’d seen the guards that Vickers had placed. Not only the silent metaljackets but a handful of Nighthawks too. Blade wouldn’t do something so foolish, would he?
“The draining factories,” Leo muttered. “We’re directly beneath them. That noise is probably the steam engines on the filtration machines.”
The tall, grim man who led the Nighthawks held up his hand with a closed fist. They all stopped in their tracks, and Honoria peered over Blade’s shoulder.
“What is it?” she whispered.
The guild master shot her a hawkish glare, his eyes hunting the shadows.
Blade grabbed her by the wrist and shoved her to the side, hovering over her protectively. “Be still, luv,” he murmured. “It’s too quiet in ’ere. And somethin’ stinks.”
You mean, apart from the usual? Her nostrils had shut down long ago.
Someone lit a flare stick. It hissed to life with a phosphorescent glow, and curses lit the tunnel as they all tried to adjust to the glare.
Suddenly Blade clapped a hand to his ears, his teeth bared in pain. The other men around them echoed his motions.
“What’s wrong?” she shouted.
Tin Man stared at her over Blade’s bent back. And then the path of his gaze drifted over her shoulder and his eyes widened.
Honoria spun on her heel. There was a flash of corpse white, and then one of the Nighthawks went down with a scream, the one holding the flare stick. The stick splashed into the water, still burning beneath the dirty sludge. The immediate phosphorescence dimmed.
“Get ’er out of ’ere,” Blade snapped to Tin Man, shoving her roughly into his arms.
The scream cut off abruptly, and then several pistols retorted with brief, spitting flares of light.
Honoria’s hand was shaking as she drew her pistol. Tin Man hauled her into a side tunnel, the hook on his hand held defensively.
“Blade!” she screamed.
He was lost in the shadows and the melee. Pistol fire barked in the main tunnel, and men shouted in confusion.
“It’s too narrow in ’ere! Stop firin’!”
Honoria stilled. That was Blade’s voice. She pushed forward, evading Tin Man’s grip as she peeked around the corner. There were floating corpses everywhere. Blade’s pale hair came into view, dragging a screaming, mangled body back to safety. Leo was at his side, holding a hand against his thigh and limping.
The tunnels ahead intersected. The vampire had lain in wait for them, using the narrow depths to its advantage. Where was the metaljackets’ handler? They stood still and silent, the bluish glow in the empty sockets of their eyes powered down to a mute flicker of light.
With the shadows and the slowly dying flame of the flare stick, she could barely see. Only by following the sounds of screaming could she track the vampire.
She saw Blade’s body stiffen as he looked up, and then he was dropping the body he was dragging and reaching for his knife. Leo moved to grapple the white blur streaking toward them but stumbled in the knee-deep water.
Before Honoria knew what she was doing, she was running forward and screaming, “No!”
The creature hit Blade, who staggered backward, his serrated knife punching into his attacker’s side. A high-pitched squeal echoed at the edge of hearing, and Blade flinched as the sound cut through him. He went down with a splash.
She couldn’t use the pistol without hitting him. Tucking it at her belt, she threw herself at the creature and screamed in its face. Somehow she managed to halt the deadly strike of its slashing claws.
Filmy white eyes met hers. The stink of it was strong enough to cut through the stench of the tunnels. She could taste it in her mouth, thick and rancid, like old grease.
A backhand caught her by surprise. She went sailing through the air, her body crumpling against the wall of the tunnel. A shaft of pain went through her shoulder, and her head rocked at the impact. In the dim light she could see the creature’s hand strike down into the body beneath it. Blade.
“Father! No!” Stumbling forward once more, she caught at the rigid tendons in the vampire’s wrist and pulled futilely.
Blade’s face came out of the water with a gasp, blood spreading through the swampy muck.
“I can help you! I can help you!” Honoria yelled, tears streaming down her face. The hand beneath hers suddenly shifted.
Blade dragged himself against the wall, cradling his side. Their eyes met and Honoria deliberately put herself between him and the vampire.
“Don’t,” he gasped. “Run, you bloody fool woman.”
So close. The vampire’s nostrils sniffed the air as it turned to face her. She let its arm go, drawing the pistol from her belt. “I can help you.” A whisper.
Honoria stared at the creature who had once been her father. There was no resemblance now, though she looked for it. The irony was cruel. Her proud, anti–blue blood father would have hated this end of his existence.
Honoria’s hand shook as she lifted the pistol. The vampire quivered as it stared at her, head drifting side to side as it fought the base hunger of its nature.
The vampire tried to say something. Its lips stretched over vicious, needle-sharp teeth stained with blood. Please.
Its hand caught hers and dragged the pistol to its forehead.
“Lena and Charlie miss you,” she sobbed. “And so do I.”
Gritting her teeth, her eyes hot with tears, Honoria leaned forward and pressed her lips against its cheek. “I love you,” she whispered. And then leaned back and pulled the trigger.
Explosive sound ricocheted through the tunnel. Blood sprayed, splattering across Leo’s face, and then the headless body slumped into the water, twitching.
Honoria’s hand dropped to her side. She could barely hold the pistol, she was trembling so hard. A glimmer of maggot-pale flesh gleamed in the dim light and then slowly sank beneath the surface of the water. He was gone. Again.
Don’t think. Just don’t think. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she stared. Father…
“He’s at peace, Honor,” Leo said.
“No thanks to you!” she spat, then gave him her back.
Blade leaned against the tunnel wall, struggling to sit up, his hand clapped to his side. There was blood all over him, some of it the viscous black of her father’s, the rest thick and blue.
Struggling to his side, she went to her knees. She could barely see for the tears that blinded her, but she managed to wipe them with her grimy sleeve. This was no time to fall apart. Blade needed her. “Let me have a look,” she said.
“She’ll ’eal,” Blade said. The look in his eyes suddenly darkened. “You bloody fool. What the ’ell did you think you were doin’?”
“Saving you,” she replied, rocking back on her heels at the sudden vehemence in his voice.
“I told you to—”
“I don’t give a damn!” she yelled. “I don’t care how many times you tell me to run, I won’t leave you behind!”
“Yes, you will,” he hissed. A grimace flickered over his face as he tried to sit up. “Damn you, Honoria. Seein’ you like that…in danger…it kills me.”
“He wasn’t going to hurt me.”
“’Ow do you know?”
“He was my father.”
Blade’s face darkened. “And Charlie’s your brother. And me? I’m your lover. You don’t think either of us could kill you? You don’t think there’s an ’ungry part of us that ain’t seen you as nothin’ more ’n blood? That’s wanted to ’urt you?” To her surprise, pain twisted his expression. “I would die a thousand times over to see you safe. Even from meself.”
“And I will never walk away,” she whispered, reaching out to press her palm against his cheek. There was a sudden thickness in her throat. “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s foolish. But I can’t help how I feel.”
A strangled sound came from Blade’s throat. He pressed her hand against his mouth and kissed it, his cool lips gliding over the palm.
A hydraulic hiss suddenly swept through the tunnel. Both of them looked up as the squad of metaljackets took a sudden step forward in eerie formation. Honoria held Blade’s hand, hovering protectively over him.
“What the hell…?” Leo broke off as the first metaljacket engaged its firing arm, pointing it directly at him. He froze, the blood burns from the vampire’s blood on his face standing out in stark relief.
Honoria’s breath caught as another metaljacket aimed at them. Leaning forward, she tried to cover as much of Blade’s body as she could, though the Spitfire’s fireball could consume them both easily.
Blade caught at her arm. “Don’t.”
A man stepped out of the shadows. The metaljackets’ handler. “I thought I recognized your face,” he said. “You’re the girl from the bounty sheet. The ten-thousand-pound girl.” Avarice gleamed in his pale eyes as he examined the scene. “Nobody move. You.” He gestured toward Honoria. “Come here.”
“Sterne.” A cool voice came out of the shadows, and Jasper Lynch stepped forward, bleeding heavily. “What are you about? Why didn’t you attack the vampire?”
“I did as commanded, Guild Master.” Sterne’s smile was vicious.
She could barely think with the trauma of events, yet the words sent her mind into a whirl. “Nobody was ever to make it out, were they?” she asked. “The vampire would be dead and Leo and Blade with it. Three of the prince consort’s enemies gone in one fell swoop with him left to cry false tears over the fallen ‘heroes.’” The thought sickened her, but she knew only too well how the Echelon worked.
Leo sucked in a breath, fury sliding harsh shadows over his face.
“Don’t.” Honoria held out a hand to stop him. “It’s futile.”
Blade caught at her fingers. “What are you about?” His voice was low and desperate, his gaze searching hers.
A fresh wave of tears scalded her cheeks. She stroked his face, fingers pausing on his lips. “Please look after Lena and Charlie.” Leaning close, she kissed his lips, but he caught her hands, dragging her face up, shaking his head.
“No. No!”
“He only wants me,” she replied.
Blade glanced at the towering metal legion. “We’re dead anyways.”
“Then use the water,” she whispered and pressed her pistol into his hands.
Black bled through his eyes. He was going to fight. Honoria took the choice away and stepped toward the handler.
“I’ll come for you,” Blade snapped as she stepped within reach of Sterne.
“Water,” she mouthed, meeting both his and Leo’s eyes.
“You won’t be going anywhere,” Sterne said as he grabbed her and dragged her behind the metaljackets.
There was a little click and then a roar as the Spitfire’s jets fired. Light blinded her, burning her eyeballs with the fury of its heat. The tears on her cheeks dried instantly, and her hair whipped behind her like a blazing corona. “No!”
When she could see again, the tunnel was scorched with thick black streaks of soot. There was no sign of the three men. Honoria’s heart pounded and she started forward, but Sterne grabbed her wrist.
“Don’t give me any trouble,” he hissed, grinding a knife into her spine. “And start walking.”
Honoria shot one last glance over her shoulder as the hulking metaljackets fell into step behind them. It might have been her imagination, but she thought she saw a ripple move on the surface of the water. Please.
A sob caught in her throat, but she swallowed it ruthlessly. The weight of emotion sitting on her shoulders was enough to drown her if she let it. She had to think. Had to keep her head.
For she knew that she was finally heading toward the confrontation she’d been fleeing from for months. She was now in the hands of Vickers.
Chapter 27
Water dripped somewhere in the darkness. Fire burned in Honoria’s hands. They’d been bound behind her so tightly that she’d long ago lost feeling in them. Occasionally she tried to wriggle her fingers, but it only shot a flash-fire of pain through them.
A black velvet hood covered her head, the golden tasseled ropes tied just tight enough around her throat for her to be aware of them. Though she had not seen him, she knew it to be Vickers’s personal touch. He overlooked nothing.
Honoria was afraid, not of darkness, but of the wait. The anticipation. Vickers had trained her body so well during the years that he’d stalked her. Goosebumps erupted along her flesh, and sweat trembled on her forehead. Each panicked breath she took was hot and refracted back into her face from the hood. She felt as if she were slowly suffocating inside it.
Fight it. She closed her eyes as a hiccuping gasp leapt up her throat. Don’t let him win.
But how was she ever to escape this? He would never let his guard down again, and the Ivory Tower’s dungeons were inescapable—for a mere human.
Tears leaked from her eyes, burning a trail down her cheeks. The only consolation was that Charlie and Lena were safe. Blade would protect them. She couldn’t have left them in better hands. That is, if he had survived.
Don’t, she told herself. She had lost her father. She could not bear to think of losing Blade too. He had to have survived. There had been that ripple in the water. And he was strong and clever and…injured. A groan choked in her throat. Don’t.
The thought of him alive was the only thing keeping her sane in this hellhole. Unless Blade ruined it all. Unless he came for her.
Honoria ground her teeth together. He wouldn’t. Though he might have escaped the tower once, he could never find his way back in and get her out safely. She’d seen the guards that Vickers had placed. Not only the silent metaljackets but a handful of Nighthawks too. Blade wouldn’t do something so foolish, would he?
