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The lights flickered in the hallway. Suddenly the blare of the alarm cut out, and the resulting silence seemed as loud and as frightening as the noise had been. I strained my ears, trying to hear beyond the sound of our own footsteps, but there was nothing.
“It’s not the wounds that are slowing me down like this, Jill,” Declan said after a moment, cutting through the eerie silence. “It’s something else.”
“What is it?”
His grip at my waist tightened. “It’s your blood. It didn’t kill me, but along with the tranquilizer’s effects, it’s still messing me up. I feel it.”
Shit. “What does that mean?” I asked.
Declan brought his hand to his temple and rubbed it as if he had a headache. “I don’t know. My head’s all cloudy. I can’t think right.”
I was used to Declan being so strong and capable. Seeing him in this weakened condition scared me even more than I already was.
My jaw set. “I’d rather not have to carry you up those stairs, but I will if I have to.”
He eyed me, and if I didn’t know any differently, I’d say he looked slightly amused. “You don’t give up, do you?”
“I’ll let you know when I do, but I’m not quite there yet.”
We kept moving for a few more moments, Declan’s weight heavy against me.
“Jill, stop,” he growled.
I wasn’t sure what was wrong, but then I followed his line of sight. At the end of the hallway, someone stood in our path. It was a new vampire, his glittering black eyes almost glowing under the fluorescent light, the blue veins throbbing on his pale face.
A monster right out of one of my nightmares and it was headed straight for us.
“Don’t come closer,” I warned when he got within eight feet of us.
But it was too late. The vampire’s chest hitched as he inhaled my scent.
Declan had told me once that vampires didn’t actually need to breathe. They did it more out of habit from having once been human than out of true necessity. I wouldn’t exactly call them undead—they were still a strange and unnatural form of the living—but they were no longer human.
And this particular non-human wanted a taste of me. I guess he hadn’t gotten the memo about Jillian Conrad, Nightshade carrier. Tasty death on legs.
The vampire didn’t hesitate. He lunged for my throat, no conversation, no explanation, just a need to feed. Jackson had said that the vampires here were kept near starving so they’d make for better test subjects.
This one wanted blood, my blood. Buckets of it. And he wasn’t willing to negotiate.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
Before I felt morethan the vampire’s cool breath on my throat, Declan grabbed him and threw him against the wall. I heard several bones crack with the impact, but the monster leaped back up to his feet immediately as if he felt no pain.
“I’m so hungry,” he hissed at me.
“Too bad.” I staggered back as he drew closer again. I’d let the thing bite me so my blood would kill him, but then I’d run the risk that he’d kill me, not to mention that a loss of blood weakened me. I knew I needed all my strength if Declan was already weakened.
He didn’t get the chance to bite me. Declan grabbed the vampire’s head and twisted it sharply to the side. There was a sickening crack. He fell to the ground in a heap only inches from my feet, his black eyes staring upward. Cold sweat slipped down my back.
“Is...is he—?” I stammered.
“No. He’d be ash by now if he was dead. It’ll take him a few minutes to recover.”
I gaped at him. “A few minutes to recover from a broken neck?”
“Yeah. Come on.” Declan grabbed my hand and pulled me along the hallway with him.
The fluorescent overhead lighting flickered out completely, plunging us into complete darkness. A couple of seconds later there was a whirring sound as the emergency system came on. There still wasn’t much light, only enough to see the vague outline of where we were going.
