Long Live the Queen (The Immortal Empire) (28 page)

She looked around, wound apparently forgotten. The bleeding was already starting to slow down. “They got in my way. I wouldn’t have hurt them if they’d just given me what I came for.”

“Rye,” I supplied. Of course, he knew too much about the
labs. “You came for him.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ophelia leading a still furry Rye down the stairs. At least she’d listened to me. She must really care about him, because she loved a good thrashing almost as much as I did.

Ali frowned. “Yes. He has to die. I don’t know why.” A wide grin spread across her blood-splattered face. “That rhymes!”

Madder than a bag of cats. “He doesn’t have to die at all, Ali. You don’t have to kill.”

“Yeah, I do,” she replied, absently scratching her head. Had no one taught her to brush her damn hair? It was like a bird’s nest. “I’m sorry about your father, though. I didn’t want to kill him, but I had to. My master was very upset when he found out I hadn’t done it properly. He had to get someone else to finish it. I got whipped for the mistake.”

Great big eyes lifted to meet my gaze. “I don’t want to get whipped again, Xandra.”

“The Prince of Wales, that’s your master, yes? Bertie?” Ali frowned, and glanced around distractedly. “Where’d he go? The wolf man? Where is he? I have to kill him. It will stop when I kill him.”

“What will stop?” I asked, trying to draw her back to me, to buy Fee more time. I grabbed at Ali’s arm, but she shrugged me off.

“The pain,” she snarled. “He’ll make it stop if I do what he wants.”

Well, fuck. This was not good. I thought of the halvies in the underside cells at Bedlam who had all manners of horrors done to them. Things removed, things implanted, terrible torture in the name of science. Had they implanted something in Ali? Some kind of sensors or receivers?

When she moved towards the stairs, one of the halfies broke
a heavy oak chair over her back. Ali stumbled, but soon regained her footing. She had him by the throat in the space of a blink. Arterial spray decorated the walls and ceiling as she bit, ripped and spat globs of meat at the others, who cried out and drew back.

She tossed the halfie to the floor. I watched the light snap out in his eyes. Dead, just like that.

Ali moved again, zipping down the corridor. I bolted after her, catching her in a tackle at the top of the stairs that took both of us arse over appetite down the entire narrow flight.

Falling down stairs is never a treat, especially not when you’re trying to keep someone from killing you. Ali snarled and snapped at me as we hit every bloody sharp edge. I was going to be black and blue for a bit later on.

If I lived that long, that was.

At the bottom, I rolled to my feet at the same time she did. We came up in exactly the same stance, except I had my dagger – somehow I’d managed not to drop it – and she had a wickedly clawed hand. She could scoop out my intestines like stew from a pot with those claws.

“I’m not here for you, Xandra. Get out of my way.”

I shook my head. “Can’t let you kill him, Ali. He’s a friend, and he’s done nothing wrong.”

“He escaped from the lab. He’s an anomaly, and he…” Her gaze met mine, her eyes widening. “He’s important to you. That’s why I’m supposed to kill him, because he knows too much, and because it would hurt you.”

“Do you want to hurt me?”

“No.” She rubbed the heel of her hand against her forehead, just like I did when a headache threatened. “I don’t, but… Arggggh!”

She struck her fists against her head as she growled and roared. Someone was jacking up the insanity. Brilliant.

Her eyes glittered when they met mine. A snarl curled her lip, wet with saliva. Whatever had just happened to her, it had put the monster back in control. “Xandra, you need to back off.”

I placed myself between her and the end of the corridor – the exit. She was my responsibility whether I wanted it or not. My daughter. I was the only one who stood a chance of taking her down, though I doubted appealing to the little girl in her would work at this moment. “I’m not going to do that, Ali.”

Suddenly, she grinned, all fang and spit and crazy fucking eyes. “Good.”

She launched herself at me. I barely had time to lift my arm in defence as she took me to the floor. Her fangs bit deep into my forearm, sinking through muscle all the way to bone. This was too much déjà vu. A ragged sound caught between a scream and a growl tore from my throat. Fuck, but that hurt!

I brought up the dagger with my other hand and stabbed her in the shoulder. When she didn’t release my arm, I stabbed her again. That was enough to make her break free with a scream. Her claws raked my face as she reared up. I barely managed to pull the blade free.

My cheek burned. I could feel the blood running from the wound, smell it. She’d just missed my eye. She slashed again, this time across my chest, slicing through the boning of my brocade corset like the metal strips were butter, easily shredding the fabric and flesh beneath. I roared in pain and rage. I had to get it together before she killed me. And she would kill me.

It’s an odd thing realising you are not the big bad whatever-you-thought-you-were.
That there was someone bigger and badder. It was frightening and oddly relieving at the same time. Like I wasn’t such a monster.

But I was getting my arse kicked by one. She struck again, and I managed to narrowly avoid those claws ripping into my throat.

With my blood running everywhere, I lifted my arm and shoved the blade up. She pivoted at the last second, so I got her in the ribs again and not the gut. Even creatures like us went down from a stomach wound.

Ali was full-on hatters now. Was it the scent of my blood, or the thrill of the kill? Maybe both. Her face was covered in both dried and fresh blood as she grinned down at me like some sort of grotesque clown.

At least I knew that my blood didn’t seem to have much effect on her.

“I’m going back for Vex when I’m done with you,” she cackled. “Maybe I’ll pretend to be you and fuck him first. Then I’ll go visit William, your precious prince. Maybe I’ll fuck him too. He’d like to fuck you, you know that, right?”

Where had this come from? One minute she’s blubbering about not wanting to kill me and then she spouts this knobbedup stuff. It didn’t matter what Bertie had done to her – she was mental. Completely insane, and there was nothing I could do to save her.

That made everything terribly clear to me at that moment. She wasn’t going to go easy on me. The fact that I was her mother meant nothing to her now. She had every intention of killing me, and yet I thought of her as someone to pity. To help, rather than fear. My child. I needed to start fearing, and I needed to do it now, before she ended me.

And before she could hurt William or Vex.

“You almost killed the man I love,” I told her.

She cocked her head to one side. “I’ll do better next time.”

I muttered a silent thanks to whatever was responsible for people making threats at exactly the right moment. It always happened in films and on the box. The villain said just the right thing to send the hero over the edge and come back fighting.

Despite a dearth of witty one-liners, I was the hero in this particular drama. And I was not about to let it become a tragedy.

What I was going to do, I realised as my heart began to thump harder, was fight. I just needed that anger and desperation…

Ali was more surprised than I was when I started to change. After all, at this point I had become accustomed to feeling the bones in my face shift around and my fangs come out.

I focused on her threat. Focused on the people I loved and the people I had already lost. I would not lose any more – and I would not allow them to lose me. I couldn’t.

My arms tingled. I glanced down and through the blood saw that my skin looked strange. That was because I’d grown fur – short velvety stuff like Ali’s. And my hands ached as they lengthened and twisted into claws – again like Ali’s.

What the sweet ruddy fuck was going on? And what difference did it make? I could
shift
.

I growled and lurched upright catching her by the shoulder. I dug my fangs in deep, rejoicing as she screamed. If I bit really hard, could I snap the bones there? I wagered I could.

She hit me in the side of the head and I let go, but not before I let my teeth rip a bit. She screamed again and slashed at me with her claws. She caught me on the left side as I pivoted away.

She was stronger than me – larger now too. I didn’t know how to make myself like her. I couldn’t. All I could do was fight.

So I fought. I don’t know how much time passed. I only know that the carpet in the corridor was soaked with our blood as we rolled around like fighting cats. We were both tiring, but me faster than her. I’d landed a few good strikes, but she’d cut me to ribbons. I could feel bits of my skin flapping when I moved, and my lack of agility bespoke torn tendons and serrated muscle.

I was cold. Afraid. Tired.

This was it. This was how I was going to go out – defeated and bloody in Bedlam. It was the sort of thing I used to have nightmares about. Now, it seemed absurd that I should die here, of all places. But then here was where it all began, where Dede opened my eyes. It seemed somehow appropriate that I end here.

I swung the dagger at Ali. She knocked it out of my numb fingers. How long had we been going at this? The blade fell with a thud out of my reach. My vision was blurring and I was so very weak. Everything was covered with a haze of red.

She punched me hard in the face. I felt the bones crunch and splinter, but I didn’t make a noise as I fell back against the carpet. I couldn’t.

Then I heard a beautiful sound. It was a wolf howl – Vex’s howl – followed by William’s growl. My cavalry had arrived.

I tried to smile, but my face refused to work. Ali paused in her persistent bashing of me to listen. Slowly she staggered to her feet. At least I’d tired her a bit.

“Now you’re for it, bitch,” I crowed, but it came out as incoherent gargling moans. There was too much blood in the back of my throat, and my jaw was broken on both sides.

Through the narrow slits of my eyes and that fine haze of red, I saw Vex in wolf form tear through the air at Ali. She turned and ran into the nearest room. She was still pretty fast, the bitch. I thought Vex had given chase until I saw his huge paws in front of me. It must have been William who’d gone after Ali. I heard the crash of glass and a loud popping noise that could only mean that she had gone through a window and taken the bars on the outside of it right out of their moorings.

She was so strong. Why couldn’t I be that strong?

“Xandra?”

My eyes fluttered open. Vex had shifted, and was crouched over me in all his naked glory. Too bad I couldn’t move my head – I would have liked a better look.

He looked so sad, so scared. I opened my mouth to say something smart-arse, but the only thing that came out was blood.

My gaze locked with his, and that was when I knew I was dying.

“Don’t leave me,” he whispered.

I heard voices around us, people running and shouting. I wanted to tell him I had no intention of going anywhere, that it was going to take more than a fucked-up hatters shifter-bitch to kill me, but I couldn’t make a sound. When he took my hand, I couldn’t even squeeze his fingers.

I gurgled.
I love you
.

Then, nothing.

I woke up. That in itself was something of a surprise. Bit of a let-down, really. Dead would have meant I didn’t have to worry about shit any more. Unfortunately, not-dead reminded me that it seemed the Prince of Wales was out to get me, and that I hurt like hell – everywhere.

I expected to find myself in hospital, but I wasn’t. I was in Vex’s bed, and it felt as though every inch of me was bandaged and wrapped like a bloody mummy.

A tall, skinny metal pole stood beside the bed. Attached to it were several bags of fluids – at least one of which appeared to be blood – that dripped through tubes and into needles that were taped to my arm where they pierced my veins.

I itched – healing wounds were always a bitch – but my hands were bandaged and I couldn’t scratch. Could I just ignore it?

A soft growl turned my head. There, in a wingback chair pulled up close to the bed, slept Vex. His hair was a mess, there were violet smudges beneath his eyes and his jaw sported more than a day’s worth of stubble. This wasn’t the first time I’d woken up expecting to be dead only to find him near me.

How long had I been unconscious?

Long enough to really have to pee.

Damnation. “Vex?” It came out a strangled whisper. Had Ali severed my vocal cords? My face ached something horrible, and it was bandaged too. I cleared my throat – which, oddly enough, did not hurt. “Vex!”

He jerked upright. The startled expression on his face would have been comical if it hadn’t immediately turned to such joyful relief that tears filled my eyes. I was not going to cry. If I started, I wouldn’t stop for a good long time, and I wasn’t going to go there.

My mind and soul would just have to be content with being alive, because all those might-have-beens hadn’t happened and I had no time to entertain them.

“Xandra.” Oh hell, his eyes were wet too. “Sweetheart…” Whatever else he planned to say never got said. Instead, he gently cupped my face with his hands and kissed me. Then we were still for a moment, his forehead resting against mine. That didn’t hurt either, though the kiss had made my jaw twinge. I didn’t care.

“I’ll get William,” he whispered, pulling back.

“I need to pee.”

He stared at me for a moment, and then grinned. I guess having to pee was a good thing. “Can you move?” he asked.

I tried. “I can, but it’s a bit dodgy with these bandages. Who the hell wrapped me like this?”

He arched a brow. “I did.”

“Oh.” I tried to smile. “Then I reckon you can get me out of them right quick, yeah?”

Turns out that was a great fat no. He did, however, pick me up and carry me to the loo. Those metal poles had to squeak along with us. I had to go so bad I didn’t even care that he waited not far away, afraid to let me completely out of his sight.