Heir of Night by Emily Goodwin
Chapter 23
War.
“It has to be him,” I say, voice coming out a little thin. “It’s War who’s behind this.”
“It might not be.” Lucas pulls me closer to the brick wall of the building behind us, putting himself in harm’s way in front for me. I get a flash of him moving in front of me at the last second to keep me from getting shot back when I dealt with another Horseman. It terrified me then, even though I knew he’d heal. “But we can’t leave it up to chance.”
He looks at Eliza. “Go back to the bar. If the threat gets closer, lock the doors and move everyone away from the windows. You four go into the basement and stay until I’m back.”
“Wait.” I grab both of Lucas’s hands. “Where are you going?”
His dark blue eyes meet mine. “It’s your turn to trust me.” He gives me a quick kiss and takes off, speeding away in the blink of an eye.
“We need to move,” Eliza rushes out. As someone who can withstand bullet wounds, she doesn’t share our same fear of getting shot, but it doesn’t keep the fear off her pretty face. “The street will turn to chaos once word gets out. Go, now!”
I take Abby’s hand and jog down the sidewalk, telling a couple lingering outside the bar to come in with us. Eliza shuts and locks the door and startles from something I can’t hear. “Rene,” she says without raising her voice. Rene’s at the bar and looks up, able to hear. “Close the metal blinds. Now. I’ll explain later.” Rene puts down the cocktail shaker and zooms away, leaving behind several confused customers. The metal blinds come down a second later, sounding just like the ones at the house on North Orchard—but louder. It takes me right back to the research lab, and I squeeze Abby’s hand.
Elena moves, stretching out painfully again, and it’s all I can do not to be overwhelmed with the smell of bleach while being blinded by bright lights. I’m here. At the bar. War is in Lincoln Park, and Lucas is out there with him. I shake off the memory and remind myself that no one is going to take Elena from us and run experiments on her like they did to me.
Not even the fucking Horsemen.
Still holding Abby’s hand, I lead her and Melinda through the bar, getting through the crowd before anyone starts to panic.
“Hey, everyone.” Eliza speeds over to the bar and jumps up on it once we’re on the other side of the room. “I had some requests to see how us vampires spend the day.” She motions to the windows. “These are light-tight and allow us to tend to this establishment during daytime hours.”
People think it’s cool and buy the story for the time being. Abby, Melinda, and I make our way through the crowd and go through swinging black doors that lead to the basement.
“If there are vampire prisoners down here, don’t be alarmed,” I warn and grip the metal railing with my free hand. Conjuring a ball of blue energy, I toss it up to illuminate our way. There are lights down here, but finding the switches takes time we might not have.
“I need to call Phil.” Abby’s hands are shaking, and she comes to a stop. She gets her phone out and then looks up. “Oh my God. Ricci and Min are still here!”
“Then they’re safe,” Melinda tells her. “I saw them as we walked past.”
“Did they see you?”
“No. They were busy taking selfies.”
“Okay, okay, okay,” Abby says quickly, composure starting to crumble. I push back my shoulders and look around the basement. We’re in the main storage area, neatly filled with extra tables and chairs, shelves of dishes and glassware, and several cases of alcohol.
“Text them,” Melinda says calmly. “Let them know you heard about a possible shooter and tell them to stay where they are, but there’s no reason for alarm yet.”
Abby’s head bobs up and down, and she feverishly types out a text, fingers trembling so much she keeps making typos she has to go back and fix.
“The service down here sucks,” Melinda mumbles, looking at her own phone. She calls her brother and leaves a message, telling him a CliffsNotes version about a “powerful demon” infecting people and making them go crazy. Moving away from the stairs, I go toward the hall that leads to the jail cells made out of reinforced steel and cinderblocks, strong enough to keep a vampire in. A weakened vampire, that is.
The ball of energy moves along with me, leaving Abby and Melinda in the dark. A flashlight clicks on, and Melinda shines it around the room. Seriously, where the hell does she store that stuff? I rejoin them and sit on the bottom step, getting my own phone out. Melinda was right to say the service sucks, and it takes a good minute for a local news station site to load.
“I’ve come to check on the humans,” Eliza says, walking down the stairs. “Why are you in the dark? I know at least two of you have no night vision.” She pulls a string, turning on a single bulb over the stairs.
“How is everything upstairs?” I ask.
“The news reports are rolling in about an active shooter in the area. Some are worried, some don’t seem concerned. And the band offered to keep playing.” She rolls her eyes. “Now they think they’re like the damn orchestra on the Titanic keeping everyone calm. Though, news flash, no one cared about the music when they knew an icy death awaited them.”
“Were you on the Titanic?” Melinda asks slowly.
“No. I was already in America by that time. Lucas wanted to go on it, actually.” Her lips curve into a small smile as she thinks back. “Anything big and flashy has his name all over it.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Eliza thinks back for a second. “We were out west then. Arizona, I believe, had recently become a state, so of course Lucas wanted to see what kind of property he could purchase.”
“It’s working,” I interrupt, holding up my phone. We all grow quiet, watching footage from a helicopter. The live feed keeps buffering, and though it’s annoying, we’re still able to get most of the reporting.
A man with a gun entered his place of work and opened fire. He left through the back and went into a restaurant, which was thankfully closing up for the night. Only the employees were there, and no one at this point knows if there are any injuries or deaths. The police have the place surrounded and are going to start negotiations in case the gunman has taken hostages.
We’re all gathered together, hunched over to watch things transpire. Abby slips her arm through mine, fingers still shaking. More police cars pull up and the helicopter moves back, giving us a look at the whole street. The news cuts back to a reporter on the ground, with flashing lights behind her. She’s a distance away, yet could still be in the line of fire from a rogue bullet.
“You think War is behind this?” Melinda asks me.
“It would be a pretty big coincidence if it wasn’t.” I run a hand over my stomach, feeling a little sick. The news cuts to an aerial view of the restaurant again and then back to the reporter, who says it’s now believed the gunman does indeed have hostages. She’s interrupted by a string of gunfire, and then something moves behind her, so fast it’s just a blur.
Lucas.
Things erupt into chaos, with the news crew moving in closer and the police shouting at whoever just ran into their active crime scene. I clench my jaw and stare at my phone, heart hammering. More gunshots ring out, and the camera man ducks, almost tripping and falling as he runs.
“Someone is coming out,” the reporter says, taking her stance and looking into the camera before turning back. We can hear the police yelling to hold their fire, and the camera zooms in on a man with his hands held behind his back, walked out of the building by Lucas.
“Fucking gladiator,” Eliza grumbles, hiding her big sigh of relief. I miss what the reporter is saying, crazy straining my eyes and doing my own check. Lucas has blood splattered on his face and a circular red stain on his chest. He’s holding the gunman’s hands effortlessly with only one of his own and has the gun—some sort of rifle that has been bent in half—in the other.
A spotlight is shone on him, and fuck, my husband is so damn attractive. He drops the gun and thrusts the gunman forward and then speeds back into the building, emerging seconds later with an injured teenage boy in his arms. He brings him to an ambulance, and the reporter tries to get closer but is blocked by the police, who are trying to detain Lucas with no luck.
My undead lover zooms away, and we’re left almost as stunned as the reporter, who is quite literally at a loss for words for nearly a minute.
“I cannot believe what we just witnessed,” she finally says. “But it appears a vampire just apprehended the suspect and brought out one of the victims needing medical attention.” She looks into the camera, and I can tell by her face she’s not in favor of vampires having any sort of human rights. “There was blood but he—he didn’t drink it.”
“Vampires saving the day instead of murdering innocent children?” Eliza laughs. “They’re not going to know what to do with this.”
“Maybe they’ll revisit barring vampires from any sort of career in law enforcement,” Melinda muses. She was raised not to trust vampires as well. Anything not totally human isn’t to be trusted by a hunter, and that includes witches.
Abby laughs nervously. “Vampires upholding the law.” She pulls her arms in and clamps her hands together. “It makes sense, actually. You guys are hard to kill.”
“I don’t know why any of us would want to risk our undead lives, no matter how hard we are to kill, to uphold rights and laws we’re denied,” Eliza quips. “But that’s a conversation for a different time.” She gets up and paces across the room. Like me, she’s anxious for Lucas to return. “I need to check on everyone upstairs.”
Leaving the live stream of the news on, I stand and try to stretch out my lower back. I don’t understand how I was able to stand somewhat comfortably this morning, but now it feels like my uterus is going to fall out if I stay on my feet long enough. The pressure is so damn uncomfortable.
“We’re safe to go back upstairs,” I say. “And into the kitchen so I can get another pretzel with cheese. And garlic sauce.” I put one foot on the stairs and wince, getting hit in the crotch from the inside again.
“Oh, shit.” Abby springs to her feet. “I momentarily forgot. Sit,” she tells me. “And put your feet up.”
“I’m okay,” I counter, knowing it’s a habit to say I’m good, even when I’m not. It’s a bad habit I don’t want Elena to inherit. It’s okay to not be okay, and it’s healthy to admit when you need a break or when you need help. “I think. I hope,” I add with a grimace. “I’m not currently in pain. What I felt earlier wasn’t pain in an obvious way.”
Abby looks at me, trying to follow along with what I’m saying.
“I mean, it’s like everything got all tight.”
“That sounds like a contraction.”
“It stopped, thankfully,” I add, and something dawns on me. The weird feelings of my baby being a ball of fire or the extreme tightness of my abdomen happened after I used my angel powers. My worst fear this whole time was that my body isn’t human enough to carry a baby to term. Have I been hurting my daughter each time I use my powers?
The swinging doors at the top of the stairs are pushed open, and Lucas appears before me. I don’t even realize I’m smiling at the sight of him until he kisses me.
“You were right,” he says, pushing my hair back. He still has blood on his face and his shirt is damp. “The gunman was infected and muttering about how he was a true patriot and had to protect his country against alien invaders.”
“Infected or possessed?” I ask, wiping a big smear of blood off his cheek.
“Infected. His blood wasn’t rancid, and his eyes weren’t black. No one else fell under War’s influence.” Lucas puts a hand on my stomach. “It’s taken care of. Now, let’s get you to the hospital.”
“There’s only a few hours of dark left.” I close my eyes. “I went from feeling War’s influence, to watching him create a demon, to hiding in the basement because of a mass shooter. Can we just go home?” My eyes fill with tears, and I look at Lucas. “I can’t handle a hospital right now.”
Confliction takes over his face, and he pulls me to him, hugging me tightly and running his hand up and down my back. “We have to do what’s best for the baby. Are you in pain?”
“Not right now.”
He rakes his fingers through my hair and sighs but doesn’t take in more air after. Sighing, breathing, blinking, and even yawning are habits some vampires never break. Lucas often inhales and exhales when he’s up and moving around, since those movements are second nature. But when he’s asleep, he looks quite dead.
“I want to go home.”
“I’d feel better knowing everything is okay,” he tells me. “I also want to keep your stress down. Can you see if the midwife can meet you in an hour? We’ll go straight home to Thorne Hill.”
“And leave the hellhound with me?” Eliza huffs.
“I prefer to have her with me,” I tell them both. “And my familiars in our house.”
Lucas nods but doesn’t say anything. Instead, he looks at Abby, hoping she’ll be the voice of reason. It wasn’t that long ago Lucas forgot fevers make humans hotter than normal. He’s been reading every pregnancy book and blog he can find, yet there’s still so much we don’t know, especially since I’m a Nephilim.
“Have you had any spotting?” Abby asks, and I shake my head. “How’s your back now?”
“It’s sore, like I’ve been on my feet too long,” I admit. “I’m not trying to downplay anything,” I say “If I need to go to the hospital, I will.”
“I think it would be wise,” Abby says, looking almost guilty. “It would give you both peace of mind. Phil is still there and can order you an ultrasound. If we can get a tech to do it, it might not raise questions.”
“Isn’t he a doctor?” Eliza questions. “Why would it raise questions?”
“He’s a urologist who specializes in male urinary tract issues,” Abby answers. “Though it’s not out of the question for one to order an ultrasound. I’ll come with.”
“Go home,” I tell her. “You’ve had a long night too.”
“It’s fine,” she insists. “Penny is staying the night with Mom—Nancy—so I’ll be going home to an empty house and don’t really want to be alone tonight.” She wrinkles his nose. “I’ll go home with Phil once he’s done checking on his patient.”
I can feel my heart immediately speed up at the thought of going to the hospital. As Lucas said not long ago, I yelled at War. I should be able to handle going to the hospital and getting looked at. No one is going to lock me up. No one is going to lay a finger on me if Lucas thinks they’ll hurt me.
He won’t leave my side.
“Okay.” I bob my head up and down. “I’ll go.”
And I will…if War doesn’t get in our way first.