Cliff’s Descent by Dianne Duvall

Chapter Three

Cliff ground his teeth in his apartment. He should be out there. He should be helping. But no way would Reordon allow it with so many civilians in the vampires’ paths.

The French immortals fought the mercenaries aboveground. Bastien started summoning reinforcements while Melanie helped the injured.

“Cliff,” Bastien said.

“I’m here,” he called. “How bad is it, because it sounds fucking cataclysmic.”

“It’s bad.”

“Dr. Lipton’s okay?”

“For now. Cliff, you up for a fight?”

“Hell yes, man. Let me out and I’ll help you kick some serious ass.” From the sounds of it, they were critically outnumbered. There were a hell of a lot of mercenaries topside.

“Me, too,” Joe added. “I’m a little out of it from the drug, but I can hold my own against humans.”

Cliff’s pulse picked up as he paced, dodging the debris that cluttered his formerly pristine apartment, eager to get out there and do something. He wished for the thousandth time that his kitchen were outfitted with a nice set of knives, but the network balked at providing the vampires with sharp implements.

Bastien engaged in a quick argument with Melanie that he ultimately lost when she refused to evacuate with the others. Cliff wasn’t surprised. Melanie was the kind of person who always placed the needs of others above her own. As a doctor, she wouldn’t leave until every wound had been tended. And Linda had already evacuated so she could tend the wounded on the other end of… whatever means they were using to evacuate people. Reordon had always been hush-hush about that during the drills, as if he didn’t want the vampires to know.

Speaking of Reordon… Chris joined the crush of people out in the hallway.

“Étienne and Lisette are up on the ground,” Bastien shouted to the human. “David will be here any minute. Richart is fetching Roland, Sarah, Marcus, and Ami.”

“Why the hell is he bringing Ami here?” Reordon yelled back.

“We have a plan! I’ll fill you in later! Right now you need to let the vampires out to play!”

“Now I know you’re crazy!”

“They want to help! And we need all the help we can get! It’s going to take all of us immortals to handle the human firepower. We need the vamps to keep the damned building from collapsing until the rest of you can evacuate! Let them out! I’ll take full responsibility!”

“Which doesn’t mean shit! Because once Seth hears you put Ami in danger, he’s going to kill you!”

Cliff sure as hell hoped not. But Seth did love Ami like a daughter. Even the vampires knew that.

“What other choice do we have?” Bastien countered.

“You’d better be right!” The volume of Chris’s threat increased as he neared Cliff’s door, passing Stuart’s. “You’re dead, motherfucker!”

“He didn’t know they were tracking him!” Bastien yelled.

“You won’t kill me if I help, right?” Stuart asked. “You aren’t going to let those guys capture me again, are you? I mean, I can help, right?”

“Yes,” Bastien answered while someone swiped a card and entered the security code outside Cliff’s door. “Help the humans get their wounded to the tunnel.”

Cliff stood just inside his door. After a clunk, it swung open to reveal Bastien and Chris Reordon. Behind them, dozens of men and women adorned with soot, powdery bits of rubble, and bleeding wounds limped toward the far end of the hallway. Cliff stepped out and glanced in that direction.

A hole had been blown into the wall, revealing a long tunnel through which the wounded filed.

He met Bastien’s gaze. “I can help up on the ground.”

Bastien shook his head. “I don’t want to risk your being tranqed.”

Reordon moved on to unlock Joe’s door.

Joe stepped into the hallway, eyes glowing a vibrant blue.

“Help with the evacuation,” Bastien said, face grim. And a feeling of nostalgia rolled over Cliff. It felt so much like old times—when Bastien would issue orders and Cliff and the rest of his vampire army would follow them—that he might’ve smiled if circumstances weren’t so damn dire. “Check the upper floors. See if anyone is trapped. Get everyone out you can.”

Nodding, Cliff and Joe took off down the hallway, zipping past humans in a blur. A never-ending river of employees flowed forth from the stairwell. So they forced the doors of the elevator open.

The bodies of four men lay crumpled on the floor, explaining the screams he’d heard earlier. The damn elevator cable had snapped and whatever explosion had caused it must have taken out half the ceiling as well as whatever safety mechanism was supposed to prevent the thing from free-falling to sublevel 5.

“Shit,” Joe muttered.

Nodding, Cliff leaped up through the hole. The mercenaries had wrought so much damage to the building that he could see stars twinkling in the sky far above him.

That sky was beginning to lighten with the approach of dawn, so he and Joe would have to work fast to keep from frying.

The two of them catapulted up from floor to floor until they reached sublevel 1.

Cliff stared. It looked like a damned war zone. Huge pieces of concrete and rubble formed jagged hills as employees coated in dust and blood limped toward the stairwell with expressions of panic, pain, and shock. Those in front stopped and stared when they saw Cliff and Joe. Most stumbled backward when Joe approached them, his blue eyes identifying him as a vampire, not an Immortal Guardian.

“It’s okay!” Cliff called. “We’re here to help.”

That appeared to do little in the way of assuaging their fear as Joe shot forward, tossed a man over his shoulder, and zipped back toward the elevator shaft.

Cliff would’ve taken another minute to calm their fear, but more crap fell from the ceiling with every blast. Dashing forward, he lifted a woman into his arms. Her shrieks pierced his sensitive ears, sparking a grimace as he raced for the elevator shaft.

“Hold on!” he ordered.

Her arms locked around his neck as he stepped off.

A longer shriek nearly deafened him as they plummeted toward the elevator at the bottom. Shortly after he had transformed, Cliff had delighted in testing his new strength and endurance by jumping off higher and higher buildings, enjoying the rush without suffering injuries. So he had no difficulty landing smoothly on the part of the elevator roof that was still intact while protecting his cargo from the jolt.

“Almost there,” he told her as he dropped through the hole in the ceiling.

Joe and Stuart zipped past them, going the opposite direction and disappearing up the shaft. The woman’s cries dwindled to whimpers as Cliff swept through the throng to deposit her at the entrance to the escape tunnel.

He returned to the elevator shaft and leapfrogged up the other floors to reach sublevel 1 again.

The other vampires raced by, already on their way down with more injured.

Sublevel 1 had taken a big hit in the short time he’d been gone. Part of the ceiling had buckled. Sheetrock continued fall like rain from the rest of it. At the far end of the corridor, through the chaos and dust and dim lighting, he saw a sister with a crown braid herding several others toward him, no doubt intending for them to use the stairs. But Cliff doubted the elderly woman in the front would be able to navigate them easily. She looked so skinny and frail a breeze could probably tip her over. And she moved with short, stiff steps.

Cliff started toward her.

Light and fire burst into life as the building shook with another explosion.

More of the ceiling collapsed. Furniture and debris from the ground floor fell with a rumble atop the evacuating men and women. Something heavy struck Cliff’s back with enough force to make him stagger.

Shaking it off, he lunged forward and began to yank office furniture from the top of the pile, then jagged flooring, insulation, and Sheetrock until he found the old woman tucked beneath a tilted stretch of granite that had probably topped a desk.

Blinking against the dust, she peered up at him.

“It’s okay,” Cliff told her, hoping she would think him an Immortal Guardian and not be afraid. Unlike Joe and Stuart, Cliff had brown eyes that glowed amber. “I’m here to help. Are you hurt?”

She tried to answer but coughed instead when dust entered her lungs.

He quickly went to work unburying her. “Are you okay?”

She managed a thumbs-up.

As soon as he could, Cliff reached down and gingerly helped her up out of the pile.

“Thank you,” she wheezed. “Where’s Emma? You have to find her.”

“I’m going to carry you down to sublevel 5 first.”

“I can walk,” she said gamely.

“I can walk faster.”

“But—”

“I’ll come back for Emma. I promise.” Lifting her frail body into his arms, he swept her down to the mouth of the evacuation tunnel.

An Immortal Guardian he recognized as Marcus and a petite redhead stood beside it. Was she Ami?

As soon as he saw Cliff racing toward them, Marcus stepped in front of the woman and raised his weapons.

Shit. He wouldn’t attack Cliff, thinking he’d escaped, would he?

Melanie finished tending an injured man nearby and hustled over to place a hand on Marcus’s arm. “Wait.”

He scowled at her. “Is that—?”

Cliff skidded to a halt.

Melanie addressed the woman. “Ma’am? Are you hurt?”

The woman shook her head. “The ceiling collapsed. I was trapped and couldn’t move until this young man freed me. I told him I could walk, but—”

Cliff lowered the woman to her feet. “I said I could walk faster.”

The woman nodded, her expression slack with amazement. “He could.”

Cliff took a step back and sent Marcus a cautious glance. Then, after nodding to Melanie, he shot back toward the elevators and returned to sublevel 1. Stuart and Joe had already dug two men out from under the wreckage. They had also uncovered the bodies of three who didn’t make it.

Cliff looked around for the woman he’d seen helping the others and saw no sign of her. Swearing, he tore through the wreckage in search of her. An explosion took out more of the ceiling. Rubble rained down on the other side of the pile he dug through. “Come on,” he whispered. “Where are you?”

A moan reached his ears, followed by a cough.

Leaping toward it, he grabbed slabs of concrete and flooring and tossed them aside, reducing the pile until he found her.

Dust coated her like ash, powdering her braid and turning her smooth brown skin a grayish white. She blinked up at him. Her forehead glistened with blood that oozed from a gash on one side.

“It’s okay,” he told her. “I’m here to help. Don’t be afraid.”

Her chin dipped in a brief nod.

Another explosion hit what was left of the ground floor.

Cliff swiftly leaned over to shield her as flaming bits rained down around them.

As soon as it stopped, he knelt beside her.

“Y-Your eyes are glowing.”

“It’s okay. Don’t be afraid. I just want to help. Are you injured?” He swept his hands over her in a quick, impersonal search for injuries, concerned by the splotches of blood that marred her clothing.

“Th-there’s a woman,” she said. “Sadie. Sh-She’s old. She can’t make it down the stairs.”

“I already got her to safety. Are you Emma?”

Surprise lit her dark brown eyes as she nodded.

“I think your arm is broken, Emma. I need to bind it.” Tearing a strip of cloth from his T-shirt, he wrapped it around a deep gash on her arm. Then he tore another and—preternaturally fast—fashioned a sling.

She moaned.

“Sorry,” he said, knowing every movement caused her pain.

Nodding, she gritted her teeth. Her lips pressed tightly together as he lifted her into his arms, spawning even more pain.

“I’m sorry,” he said again as he dashed over to the elevator shaft.

She looped her free arm around his neck and looked over his shoulder. Her hold tightened.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. I’ll keep you safe.”

“Mercenaries,” she whispered in his ear, her warm breath sending a shiver through him.

Mercenaries? Behind him?

Well, shit. He couldn’t fight them and protect Emma at the same time.

It took mere seconds to jump down to sublevel 5 and ferry her to the tunnel opening.

Melanie hurried over to him.

“Her arm is broken and bleeding.” Cliff carefully lowered the woman to her feet. “And she has a gash on her head.”

As soon as Melanie nodded to him, Cliff returned to sublevel 1.

A dozen mercenaries crept through the wreckage.

Joe suddenly appeared at Cliff’s side.

The mercenaries hadn’t noticed them yet. Smoke and dust and fragments that steadily rained down from the ground floor obscured their vision too much.

But Cliff and Joe could see just fine.

“Kill them,” Cliff murmured. “Quick and quiet.” The immortals battling above sure as hell weren’t taking prisoners, so Cliff felt no need to hold back.

He and Joe flew forward.

The first mercenaries to fall didn’t even see them coming. The rest saw them too late. The vampires might not have the blades Immortal Guardians wielded or the weaponry of the mercenaries, but a punch backed by preternatural strength could kill a man in seconds, as could a swift twist of his head.

Another explosion rattled the floor beneath his feet as the last man collapsed.

Worried that this level would soon collapse as well, Cliff nodded to Joe, and the two of them dropped down to sublevel 2 to evacuate more employees. They took out a few more mercenaries and shuttled multiple injured employees down to sublevel 5.

Cliff waited while Joe handed off another wounded man to the guards at the mouth of the tunnel. “We’re both pretty banged up,” he told his friend. “Let’s stop off and get some blood before we go back.”

Joe nodded.

Cliff didn’t need the blood. He’d only acquired a few scrapes and bruises here and there and felt fine. But Joe was looking a little ragged. He’d suffered some gashes, two of which weren’t healing. The scent of blood was every-freaking-where. And Cliff wasn’t sure what effect killing the mercenaries might have on Joe, who’d already been struggling before the attack. Cliff worried the strain of everything would send his friend over the edge. If Joe replenished the blood he’d lost though, it might help him maintain control.

Cliff gave Marcus a nod, unsurprised when the large warrior didn’t nod back.

The Immortal Guardian radiated fury and looked ready to rip everyone to shreds as he stood sentinel in front of the petite redhead. Ami’s eyes were closed, her brow furrowed as if she concentrated very hard on something.

Maybe she was an immortal with one of those cool gifts. All of the male Immortal Guardians he’d encountered had black hair. But maybe there were some redheads among the females.

Joe made his silent way to the lab. Dr. Lipton kept a special refrigerator stocked with blood in there.

Cliff followed. The crowd in the hallway began to thin.

A hell of a lot of explosions continued to rumble overhead. And quite a few humans were still trapped on sublevel two, so this thing was far from over.

A few steps inside the lab, Joe stopped short.

Cliff bumped into his back. “What is it?”

Joe didn’t answer.

Cliff stepped around him and felt his heart drop into his stomach.

The new vampire was down on the floor with Dr. Lipton in his lap, his fangs buried deep in her neck.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Cliff bellowed and rushed forward.

Stuart raised his head and snarled something.

Dr. Lipton lay still, eyes closed, blood trailing down her neck.

Cliff lifted her with care, then backhanded Stuart, sending him flying across the room to shatter the already cracked Sheetrock on the far wall.

“Dr. Lipton?” Fear filling him, he placed his hand on her neck to try to staunch the flow of blood. “Melanie?”

Joe watched with wild eyes. “I can’t hear a heartbeat.”

Neither could Cliff. He’d like to think it was because there was so damned much other noise going on, but…

She was pale. And her lips held an alarming bluish tint.

Come on, come on, come on. Don’t die. Please don’t die.

“What happened?” Stuart asked, slumped across the room.

Joe turned blazing eyes on the vampire. “You killed her! You fucking killed her!”

“Wait!” Cliff shifted his warm, bloody fingers on her neck. “I-I-I think I found a pulse. She’s not dead yet.” But she was completely unresponsive.

“Yet,” Joe repeated and backed toward the doorway.

Cliff frowned. “Joe? What are you doing? Get help.”

But his friend just kept moving, his head rocking back and forth. “I can’t do it.”

“What?”

“I can’t do this. Not without Dr. Lipton. Not without Melanie. I can’t be here.”

“She isn’t—”

“You know what they’ll do to us! They hate us! They’ll blame us! They’ll kill us!”

Cliff gaped as his friend disappeared through the doorway.

Stuart didn’t even seem to notice. His wide-eyed gaze remained fixed on Dr. Lipton. Crimson liquid trailed from the corner of his mouth. “I did that?”

“Yes!”

“I didn’t mean to!”

Cliff could believe it, but… Shit! Joe was on the run. Dr. Lipton’s heartbeat was faltering. He had to do something. Fast. “If you didn’t mean it, get your ass over here.”

Stuart scrambled forward.

Cliff passed him Dr. Lipton and hoped like hell he was doing the right thing. “Keep pressure on her neck. I’m gonna go for help.”

Stuart nodded. He should be flushed from feeding, but his face was pale as death.

Cliff took one last look at Melanie, then bolted from the room. Down the hallway toward the elevator he raced, moving so fast he would probably kill a human if he bumped into one. “Bastien!” he shouted.

Up through the roof of the elevator he jumped.

“What?” Bastien called back from somewhere outside.

Cliff leaped up two floors, grabbed the edge, and propelled himself up two more. “Melanie needs you! She’s hurt real bad!”

One more leap and he ran smack into Bastien on the ground floor… or what was left of it.

“What happened?” Bastien demanded.

“Stuart drained her.”

Bastien’s eyes flared with panic as he turned to the elevator shaft.

Cliff grabbed his arm. “Joe’s gone. He saw Dr. Lipton and freaked out. I have to go after him.”

“The sun’s coming up.”

“He can’t be alone. He’s too close to losing it.”

Bastien nodded and pulled him into a rough hug. “Be careful. If you don’t make it back by sunrise, I’ll find you.”

Cliff nodded and watched Bastien drop through the opening and free-fall to the bottom, where he landed smoothly in a crouch.

Cliff eyed the chaos around him. There was fire everywhere. Bullets whipped past. Immortals…

He swallowed. Holy crap. No wonder Bastien’s vampire army had fallen beneath the immortals’ swords. Once again he marveled over their speed, strength, and intensity.

Cliff’s heart began to pound. His chest felt tight. He felt exposed up here. Terrified. He hadn’t been outside by himself in over two years. Had he become agoraphobic as a result? Because his feet felt frozen to the pitted floor.

Until a freaking missile shot past.

Cliff ducked behind what was left of a desk. The ceiling was gone, the remains of the roof mingling with the other rubble beneath his feet.

Where the hell was Joe?

Smoke stung his eyes as he peered around, trying to locate the blond vampire.

There! Diving into the trees.

Cliff took off after him. Leaping over a pile of mercenary bodies, he dodged as many bullets as he could. The damned things flew every which way like angry bees. A blurred form sailed past, eyes flashing bright amber.

Terror cut through him like a blade.

Would the immortals think he was trying to escape and kill him?

When the dark-as-midnight figure kept going, Cliff allowed himself to breathe again.

Apparently he wasn’t their highest priority right now.

Relieved, he headed for the trees, intent on finding Joe.

Something stung his neck.

Reaching up, he slapped at it and came away with a tranquilizer dart. His vision wavered. His knees buckled.

The ground lurched up and hit him hard.

A shadow fell over him.

Cliff squinted up at two soldiers. “Ah shi—”