Deliver Me from Darkness: A Novel of the Paladin Warriors (33 page)

She only hoped that she’d be given the time to make that Disney dream come true.

***

“I think you might want to tell busybody Calhoun about this,” Roland whispered into the Paladin’s ear as he shifted to get a better look into the huge cavern before them. Filled to bursting with vampire, merker, and demon, he was shocked to see that no bloodshed had occurred. The three groups, though on the same side, were not known to play nice without their masters there to keep them chained. Roland had spotted Ganelon right away among the masses, and as Lucifer’s right-hand man, he could probably control both merker and demon, but Christos was blatantly absent. Not good. Roland liked his enemies close, and not knowing where the troublemaking vampire was, was driving him nuts.

Close. The vampires would not amass unless Christos was around to call them to order.

Valin shook his head. “Can’t. Distance, time in the Shade. The connection is lost. He obviously can’t locate me now, and I can’t seem to get a bead past all this rock to fix it.”

The corners of Roland’s mouth pulled tight. “The other Paladin need to know what they will be facing if they come here.”

His only answer was an extreme sort of silence.

He squeezed Valin’s shoulder. “I want you to head back to the surface. Hopefully it’s just these walls interfering with your projections and you’ll be able to warn them.” He looked back down into the cavern. “I’ll find Karissa and bring her out.”

“You’re good, Roland. But without me here to cloak you, you’re not invisible.”

“True.” Roland pulled his old Paladin blade from the sheath on his thigh, the etched metal glinting in the faint light. “But with this I don’t have to be.”

Valin eyed him, eyed the blade. “You know, I think our problem always was that we are both cocky bastards.”

“Probably.”

“All right.” Valin stood. “I’ll meet you topside. But if you’re not out in twenty minutes, I’m coming back in after you.”

Roland watched Valin sift, the curl of dark cloud zipping back up the tunnel as the Paladin’s words echoed in his mind. Twenty minutes, and Valin and the other Paladin would come in after him. Why didn’t that make Roland feel any better?

***

Valin was almost to the entrance of the mines before he finally drew a bead on Calhoun. Only it wasn’t Senior, but the son. Good. Might be easier that way. Logan would know how to arrange the help of the other Paladin without the end result being a knife stuck in Roland’s heart. And damn if Valin wasn’t starting to wonder if all that animosity they’d shared in the past was a situational thing rather than a true dislike.

No worries. Something to ponder later…if Roland found his bond mate and they got them both out. Because if that didn’t happen, then Roland would not be anyone that Valin would want to know.

Valin settled his mind and tapped up against Logan’s shields. There was a moment of wary hesitation, but then the other Paladin opened a pathway.

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Valin asked.

Logan ignored that.
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Spine tingling, Valin shifted back into a side tunnel. There was a distinctive scuffle of booted feet, then, “What do you think about this prophecy crap?”

A second voice answered, “I think it’s just that—crap.”

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Logan asked through the link.

“Sure you’re not just saying that because you weren’t chosen to receive the gift?” from the first.

The other grunted in reply. Valin took that as a maybe. Trying to keep his mental voice tight and direct he “whispered” a reply to Logan.
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There was a slight hesitation before Logan replied, equally quiet and direct. <<
Where
are
you?>>

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Logan’s fury needed no medium. It was like acid in a raw wound as he mentally hissed,
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The conversational vamps walked past the opening where Valin hid. Thank the Father they weren’t merker, otherwise they might have overheard his little mental conversation with Logan, or at least known it was going on and that someone who shouldn’t be there was. The way things were starting to buzz, it was going to be short of impossible to get both Roland and Karissa out. He could only spread himself so far, especially when moving.
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Valin cut off the connection, dissipating back into the Shade.

***

Roland slunk into the oddly shaped cavern, his eyes honed in on the figure on the makeshift table, but his other senses—both vamp and Paladin ones—searched the dim corners. It was hard to concentrate on a possible trap though when Karissa lay on that table. Unconscious, barely breathing, and stained with her own blood. His very being howled with fury, but he remained silent as he finished the sweep for enemies with his eyes as well.

Confident they were alone, he raced across the room, his hands immediately going to the bindings that held her arms obscenely out to the side. Bruised arms. Cuts. Wounds that suggested she’d been poked multiple times with a needle. And her torso—someone had taken a blade to her there as well, her shirt slashed open where the sharp metal had bitten into her in long, jagged streaks before being wedged beneath the lowest rib.

“Karissa,” he choked on her name. No, it was tears he was choking on. He was crying. He’d found Karissa, but it was too late. He didn’t need to be a healer to know that it was too late.

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The projected thought had Valin stumbling out of the Shade and almost reforming in his human form. It was sheer survival instinct that had him clinging to the self he used to skip along the particles of air.

What the hell was that? The mind voice had been feminine in nature, but he was quite sure it hadn’t been Karissa. And since there were no other female Paladin, that left merker.

Great. They knew he was here now, unless this one was alone. In which case, given the properties of the stone around them, the merker probably hadn’t warned anyone else. She probably only called out because she’d overheard part of his conversation with Logan and, not able to find him, was now trying to lure him to her.

Well, wasn’t this her lucky day. Valin was in the mood to oblige. Only he wasn’t about to roll over and play dead.

Reversing direction, he headed back closer to the surface, sending out a well-shielded probe. The merker tried to grasp on but slipped off, her frustration evident in the smack of the rebound. Temper, temper. It did give him a direction though. The next time another tunnel intersected he veered off. This tunnel was heading upward and within moments he was slithering through a set of plank wood that boarded up the opening to the tunnel.

Once through, he stopped, taking in the dilapidated building. It was a warehouse of sorts, and inside were the rusted out remains of more than one coal car. There was also something else in the room, namely the woman who’d been bashing at his shields. She was chained up along the far wall, a gag stuffed into her mouth, but she was not defeated. Her eyes flashed with fire as she jerked at the leather and steel manacles around her wrists. There was something odd about her, besides the fact that she was not a merker. Something in the tilt of her eyes that reminded him of someone.

Even though she couldn’t know for sure he was there—he was still in the Shade—he felt another brush of her mind as she tried to penetrate his shields. He wasn’t that great a fool. Still, she had him deathly curious. Who was she? And why was she chained up here in this building?

He slipped closer to her, then coalesced into his human form. Her eyes widened, the black pupils all but obliterating the emerald green irises. Before he could decide whether it was the abruptness of his appearance, or the fact that he was naked, the pupils constricted back to normal.

Tough cookie.

He reached up, pulled the gag out of her mouth.

She worked her jaw and swallowed. “Thank you.” She jerked at the manacles. “Now let me out of these.”

His gaze traveled to the manacles. “Why? So you can feed on me?” He’d seen her pretty fangs when he’d pulled the gag out. “Any vampire worth their salt could get out of those. Fact that you can’t says you must be hungry.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not hungry. But if I were, I certainly wouldn’t want blood from the likes of you.”

“The likes of me?”

“You’re one of the Paladin bastards who like to turn their backs on their own. I wouldn’t lap at your vein if you were the last red-blooded creature in the world.”

He folded his arms across his chest. Forget the cookie. There was nothing sweet about this one. He took another long look at her, studying her from head to toe before returning to her face. What was it about her eyes?

She jerked her bindings again, screeching an inhuman shriek. “Come on! The woman doesn’t have much time left.”

His arms dropped to his sides. “What woman?”

“The Paladin woman, you idiot! She’s dying.”

“How do you know?”

She turned her face away, mouth pinched, forehead bunched up. A wave of heat spread through Valin. As if of its own accord, his hand shot out, latching around her throat. “Did you feed off her?”

“Not by choice,” she gasped through his bruising stranglehold.

Her eyes darted to the side. He followed her gaze to the discarded IV bag that lay empty and wrinkled upon the dirt floor. Ah, crap. So Roland wasn’t the only vamp out there who didn’t like his status in life. He looked back at her again, took in the softness of her skin, the slightness of her adolescent curves. The poor girl couldn’t have been much past puberty when she was turned.

He dropped his hand, suddenly feeling sick to his stomach. How many others had treated her thusly? Had she experienced anything other than abuse from those she interacted with? Judging by the fact that she had to be force-fed, he somehow doubted it.

He cleared his throat. He couldn’t let his sympathy for this child-vampire get to him. “Tell me about the woman.”

She looked back up, caught his gaze. “She’s dying. I can find her for you but only if you’ll let me go.”

“Roland is here. He can find her. And he certainly doesn’t need you to do it.”

***

With his hand trembling, Roland fought with the restraints, the buckles jingling and rattling. The moment she was free he had her in his arms and was lowering her off the vile table onto the ground.

“Karissa,” he said, caressing both her forehead and her mind. There was no response. She was so deep he couldn’t reach her.

Because she was dying.

No! She couldn’t die. He couldn’t lose her. It wasn’t that he couldn’t imagine life without her; it was that he could. He would not survive her death. His body would, but his heart, his humanity would not. He’d thought himself a monster before, but it would be no comparison to what he would become if she died.

He had to turn her. Yes. He would turn her. As a vampire she’d have exceptional healing powers. And she wouldn’t die. But that was after the change was completed. He would have to be careful. She’d already lost so much blood and he knew the moment the first drop of her blood touched his palate he’d want more. But he didn’t need more than a drop. Just enough to make her part of him so the conversion would work.

Conversion. What a cold clinical word. He was about to convert his mate into a vampire. Because he was selfish. Because to lose her now, and live himself, would be to exist in an eternity of living hell.

Mine!

Lifting her arm, he scrapped the calloused pad of his thumb across the fleshy part of her lower arm, reopening one of the many jagged wounds. The coppery scent drew his fangs out, saliva slicking the back of his throat. Even now, with Karissa’s life in the balance of his control, his monster rattled the cage, demanding to be let loose. Only the light skip of her pulse—too far apart, too light—allowed him to keep the lock turned.

“Forgive me, Karissa.”

***

“This is the one?” Alexander asked, strapping the blade that Logan had returned to him onto his outer thigh.

“This is it.” Logan glanced over his shoulder at the small group of a dozen or so Paladin who were busy gearing up. He still didn’t have his knife, or his sword, but he supposed it didn’t matter. He was backup, not to be on the front lines. Anything got to him and he was to release “the bomb.” Or whenever his father ordered it. Yup, Calhoun Senior was back in charge. And though he was allowing his son to participate, he was not happy with Logan.