Mission: Improper: London Steampunk: The Blue Blood Conspiracy (41 page)

"Go," he called, catching her eye and jerking his head toward Charlie.

The vampire's high-pitched scream of rage pierced her eardrums as she took out her pistol and shot the lock off the door.
Slivers of wood erupted from the timber and Ingrid flung her arm up in front of her face.
The second it had settled she burst through the door, looking for Byrnes.
He strained in a chair, blood dripping from a mark on his arm and the muscles in his biceps standing out in stark relief as he screamed again.
There were chains bolted into the floor, holding him there.

The sound shocked her.
Not pain.
Not fear.
That was rage she heard in his voice.

“Byrnes?”
she whispered, sliding to a halt.

No time to follow up.
Zero came out of nowhere, swinging some sort of staff, with a pair of vampires at her heels.

This time Ingrid didn’t hesitate.
She ducked below the staff and came up with her fists clenched.
Her first punch smashed into Zero’s face, flinging her back onto the table.

Bitch.
Ingrid grabbed a chair and swung it.
Zero rolled off the table a second before the chair hit it and came apart at the legs.
Then she darted forward, low enough to hit Ingrid around the waist.
They both went down with a crash, one chair leg remaining in Ingrid's hand.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Zero spat, locking her hands around Ingrid’s throat as she crawled up over her body.

Ingrid tried to twist free, her air cutting off.
She outweighed the woman by a decent portion of solid muscle, but the
dhampir
was strong.
“You’ve… got something… belongs to… me.”

Zero’s eyes narrowed and she leaned close enough to whisper, “He belongs to me now.”

What had she done to him?
Ingrid drove her knee up between the woman’s legs and tried to fling her aside, but something crashed nearby and then a weight hit Zero, flinging her off Ingrid with ease.

Charlie.
He stood over her with his gun held low as he tracked both the vampires and Zero.
“It’s clear!”
he called.

A pair of vampires circled them, crouched low and snarling.

The others came in firing, and Zero darted into the shadows.
She shot Ingrid and Byrnes one last furious look, then turned to her vampires.
“Come!”

One of the vampires followed her as she vanished behind a tapestry hanging from one of the walls.
The other’s gaze locked on Byrnes’s arm and the single drop of blood there.
Only the fact that there were five of them in the room seemed to confuse it.

“Got it!”
Gemma said, and clipped it with a bullet.

"Byrnes!"
Ingrid took her chance and slid to her knees in front of him.

Byrnes strained in his chains, his fingers curled into claws and bloodied froth spilling from his lips.
The
berserkergang
died down a little as she saw that.
Suddenly she was swimming up through the tides of the fury, her speed and strength ebbing as uncertainty overtook her.

"Byrnes?"
What was wrong with him?
His shirt was torn, and a faint bloodied circle marred the muscle in his upper arm.

Somehow he ground his teeth together, every cord in his throat standing out in sharp relief.
His black eyes met hers, every trace of the man she knew washing away until all she could see was the
hunger
overtaking him.
"Run!"
he screamed, and his forearms flexed as he tore at the chains.
The steel links stretched, then one tore apart with a clink.

"Ingrid."
Charlie dragged her back out of the way.
"He's not himself at the moment.
He might not recognize you."

"What's wrong with him?"

"I think she gave him the elixir," Charlie said.

“We’ve got to get him out of there.”
Ingrid strained against his hold on her.

“We’ve got other concerns first,” Charlie retorted, and jerked her back sharply as the vampire skidded on the rug nearby, narrowly missing Gemma.

Bullets retorted behind them as Malloryn spun to track the creature, firing five times as the white blur bulleted around the room.
"Stand still, you bastard."
He clicked empty, and Gemma rotated in front of him, a pistol in each hand.

BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.

The way they moved showed an old partnership, as Malloryn swiftly reloaded then rotated back to point the second Gemma ran dry.
Tracking the vampire with the pistol, he let it get dangerously close to him before he shot it point-blank in the face.

The head exploded.
Black blood spattered across Malloryn’s chest, but he let out the breath he’d been holding and lowered his pistol.

The second he did so, Byrnes broke the second chain pinning him to the floor, his black gaze locked on Charlie.
“Mine,” he snarled.

Charlie’s face paled as he dragged her away.
"Whatever it's done to him, it's unleashed the
hunger
within him.
He might not be able to separate friend from foe at the moment."

"He knows who I am," Ingrid replied incredulously.
This was Byrnes.
Control
was practically his middle name.

Byrnes darted toward Gemma and snatched her back against his chest, hissing at Malloryn over Gemma's shoulder as he curled his hand around her throat.
Gemma froze, her hand locking on his trembling arm and her gaze meeting Ingrid’s pleadingly.

“Byrnes!”
Ingrid called, stepping forward with a placating hand.
She forced herself to be calm.
“Let her go.”

“Jesus,” Charlie muttered.

Byrnes dragged Gemma back a step as the three of them fanned out, flanking him.

Malloryn lifted the pistol, aiming it directly between Byrnes’s eyes.
Then he hesitated.
"Ingrid?"

"Don't shoot!"

Byrnes grabbed a fistful of Gemma’s hair and tilted her head forcefully to the side.

“No!”
Both Ingrid and Gemma yelled.

“Talk him out of this, Ingrid!”
Malloryn's pistol never wavered.

“Don’t hurt her!”
Ingrid took another step toward him, meeting those all-black eyes and trying to find any hint of the man she loved.
“You don’t want to do this, Caleb.
We’re your friends.
I’m
your… your lover.
This is just the elixir running through your veins.
Zero did this.
She infected you with whatever she herself is infected by.
Focus on her.
Not on us.
Use that rage against her to take control.”

Byrnes paused.
“Zero,” he said in a shockingly hollow voice.

Gemma squeaked, and went up on her toes as his fingers tightened on her throat.
“Malloryn—”

Malloryn visibly steeled himself.
"Ingrid.
It's for the best.
There's no coming back from this."

"No!"
Ingrid smashed into his side as the pistol retorted.

An enormous chunk of brick wall shattered into powder.
Byrnes flinched and Gemma tore free, throwing herself into Charlie’s arms.
Byrnes turned swiftly and then he was gone into the tunnel after Zero, moving like liquid night itself.

Ingrid wasted no time.
She wasn’t about to lose him.

Not now.

I
NGRID LOST BYRNES
in the space of five minutes.
Scrambling through narrow tunnels, she finally came to a halt in a larger cavern, following the scent of Byrnes's aftershave.

"Byrnes?"
she called.
Not a cavern, but an abandoned underground train station.
Which meant she was somewhere below the asylum now, and the room where she'd first discovered him.

And, as she turned in a slow circle, she began to realize that she wasn't alone.
Ingrid jerked around as an ethereal ghost stepped onto the platform, the hairs down her arms rising.

"So," Zero said, her boot heels ringing on stone as she settled into an aggressive posture.
"We meet again.
The beauty...
and the beast.
May the best woman win."

Ingrid glared back at her, bringing up her hands in a pugilists position.
"This is not a competition."

"Oh, it is," Zero purred.
"You're the only thing stopping him from being mine.
Once you're gone, he'll accept the transformation."

Ingrid took a step toward her.
"You're mad as hatters.
Byrnes is not some prize to be won.
And you've effectively poisoned him.
What if he doesn't survive?"

Zero's smile faded, and her black eyes glittered.
"I'm not mad," she stated flatly.
"And if he doesn't survive, then clearly he wasn't worth it after all."

Ingrid sidestepped the other woman's sudden lunge, her heart pounding.
It wasn't much, but the sudden rage in Zero's eyes hinted at a weakness to exploit.
What was it?
The reference toward madness?
Had to be...
and they were standing beneath an asylum, which Zero seemed to know all too well.

Warily they circled each other.

"Your kind are filth," Zero spat.

"As opposed to vampires?"

This time there was no avoiding the blow.
A fist hammered toward her face, and Ingrid barely deflected it, taking the blow to the shoulder.
She retaliated with a brutal elbow as she ducked beneath Zero's second swing, and they came together with a clash.
Fists punching, arms flailing...
it wasn't pretty, and she couldn't avoid every blow.
One slammed into her face, sending her sprawling to the ground, but as Zero leapt upon her, Ingrid kicked up with her feet into the
dhampir's
midsection and sent her crashing off to the side.

Ingrid flipped up onto her feet just as Zero tackled her.
They hit the platform hard, and then they were rolling, each fighting for the upper hand.
Ingrid landed flat on her back, the other woman getting in a glancing blow across her cheekbone.
Pain exploded through her face and ear and she tried to lock her legs around the other woman's hips.

They rolled, end over end.
Ingrid felt her fury growing.
"You poisoned him!"
She slammed Zero's head into the floor.
"You bitch!"

"Maybe he wanted it?
Maybe he was tired of smelling your rank scent?"

"And maybe," Ingrid rasped, her hands closing around the other woman's throat, "he just pretended to be interested in you so that we could find you?
You do realize there's a tracking device on him?"

That sent her sprawling as Zero's eyes narrowed and she renewed her efforts.
A knife flashed and Ingrid scrambled to grab Zero's arms as the woman stabbed down with it.
Ingrid's arm trembled, and she grimaced as Zero forced the knife closer to her throat.
Christ
, the woman was strong!

"Just die," Zero hissed.

"N-never."
Ingrid shoved her face to the side as she let go of Zero’s hand.
The knife sparked as it hit the stone beside her ear, and Zero lost her balance just enough for Ingrid to throw the
dhampir
clear.

They scrambled to their feet, both of them panting.

One thing was becoming abundantly clear: she would need every trick in the book to win this.
Zero's strength superseded her own.

But then, Ingrid had grown up in a cage.
She'd been used as a child to test Lord Balfour's men and their strength.
Balfour had pushed her into cage matches at the age of ten, sending his men in with steel against her to prove their worth.
Verwulfen strength might be an arsenal all in its own, but it wasn't the entirety of what she had.
Ingrid knew what it felt like to fight men or women stronger and faster and bigger than she.
She knew how to push through pain and focus on winning.
And she'd been doing it since she was a child.

"What did they do to you?"
Ingrid asked.
"Lock you up in here?
Why?
Why are you doing
any
of this?"
It made no sense.
Why attack the Council of Dukes, or the queen?
What did the queen have to do with Zero?

“None of your bloody business.”
Zero circled her.

“Was it the Council of Dukes who put you in here?”

Zero launched into a flying flurry of kicks.
Ingrid blocked each one, taking one retreating step after the other.
Finally the other woman let up, as if catching hold of herself.

But something about what Ingrid had said had pushed her over the edge.

“Is it Malloryn?”
she asked.
“Did
he
put you in here?
He doesn’t remember you.”

“Not Malloryn!”
Another blow.

Ingrid stepped aside, locking her arm up under the other woman’s as Zero’s arm reached the end of its extension.
She shoved a hand into the woman’s back and wrenched her shoulder back as they both spun.
Zero slammed into the wall, face-first, and Ingrid dug a knee into the back of Zero’s, forcing it to bend as she pinned her there.

“Then what the hell kind of grudge do you have against Malloryn?”

Zero laughed, the sound echoing through her entire body.
“You stupid bitch.
I’ve never even met him.
Malloryn’s the target.”

“The target?”

“There’s a price on his head,” Zero ground out.
“But the Master doesn’t want him dead.
He wants him destroyed.
We’re just the catalysts to do it.”

Zero slammed her head back into Ingrid’s cheekbone.
She staggered back, taking another blow to the ribs.
Then a glancing one off her shoulder as she recovered.

The Master?
Who the hell was that?
Was this all a ploy?
One hand pulling the strings of both the Sons of Gilead, and… Zero?

No time to think on that though.

She wasn’t going to win this by strength or speed, and Zero healed faster than she could inflict enough damage.
Which meant smarts.
Zero knew how to fight, but she fought without a care to her body, as though she knew she could survive practically anything.
Ingrid had once felt that way too, until a vampire showed her just how mortal she could be.
Ingrid glanced around at her surroundings as Zero wiped blood from her nose.

“Time to finish this,” the
dhampir
told her, and strode forward.

Precisely what I had planned too.
Ingrid’s eyes narrowed and she ripped a strip of rusted iron from the wall where it had been holding a section of boards in place.

Zero rolled her eyes.
“Really, you just get more pathetic as you—”

Ingrid plucked one of the EMLED orbs from her belt.
“Surprise,” she said, then twisted the two halves so they popped open.

Zero’s gaze shot to the orb just as a flash of intense light emitted.
Ingrid looked away at the last second and tossed it toward the other woman, the orb making a high-pitched noise.
Then she swung the strip of iron low, aiming it at the woman’s shin.
Zero screamed as she went down, an audible crack filling the air.

“Heal that,” Ingrid snarled, and scrambled atop the woman, shoving her onto her face in a wrestling move and yanking both of Zero’s arms behind her back.
Reaching for the strip of iron, she dug a knee into Zero’s back and used sheer force to bend the iron around Zero’s arms.
Rust flaked her hands.
“Now who’s pathetic?”

Zero screamed deep in her throat, a sound of thwarted rage.
The second she fell silent, she also stopped struggling, then made a low whistling noise in her throat.

Ingrid froze, then glanced up into the darkness as something scrabbled behind the boarded-up passage she’d just ripped the iron bar off.
In the thin slit between boards a pair of filmy eyes gleamed.

Jesus.
A vampire.

Move.
Or die.

The sound of the EMLED was like a stab wound to the ears, but she snatched it up as that high-pitched wail began to fade.
They had two minutes on them.
How long had it been alight for?
She reached for the other one at her belt as she started sprinting along the platform toward the boarded-up tunnel at the end, but her hand snatched at nothing.
Must have lost it in the scuffle.
Hell
.
The second the EMLED in her hand died, there was going to be nothing stopping that vampire from coming after her.

"Hello?
Can anyone hear me?"
Her communicator was gone too, presumably when Zero punched her in the face, but surely her voice would drift through the tunnels.
There had to be dozens of Nighthawks in them.
And just where had Malloryn and Kincaid gotten to?
Or even Charlie?
"
Hello!
"

Zero began to laugh as Ingrid sprinted, the sound echoing hollowly through the tunnel.

The EMLED began to sputter, and she picked it up, swinging it around as the shadows pressed in upon her.
Something hissed in the darkness, but the claws scrambled away from her as the EMLED pulsed in her hand.

There was an explosion of sound behind her as she reached the boarded-off tunnel, and a swift glance showed a maggot-pale body smashing through onto the platform, pausing to sniff at Zero where she lay on the ground.

“After her,” Zero rasped, and the creature’s head lifted unerringly toward Ingrid.

She yanked one of the boards off the timber frame, breathing deeply.
The stink of rotting vampire wasn't as strong here, so hopefully she'd made the right choice.
The EMLED sputtered again, its light pulsing as though she was running out of time.

"A few seconds more.
Come on."
She could feel the vampire watching her.
Waiting.
Yanking at another board, she managed to slip through, cursing her broad shoulders.
Timber stabbed into her shoulder and she ground her teeth together and shoved through, taking the EMLED with her.

In the distance, light gleamed.
It wasn't much, but it lifted the swell of hope inside her.

She started running just as claws scrabbled at the boards behind her.
That inspired a surge of speed, but she tripped on the rail line, staggered forward, kept tripping—

The EMLED's light flickered, and Ingrid threw a glance over her shoulder as a pale shaped rocketed toward her.
It squeezed through the hole she’d made.

"Charlie!"
she screamed.

Light pulsed.
Flickered once more.
Then began to fade.
Ingrid threw herself toward the light at the end of the tunnel, but a blur of movement caught the edge of her vision and then something catapulted into the vampire just as it leapt for her.

Claws lashed through her calf, and Ingrid hit the floor.
She screamed in pain as she landed on the steel train tracks, kicking back and twisting, trying to break free—

But the vampire was gone, rolling end over end with a figure in black as they tore into each other.

Ingrid scrambled backward, reaching for the flickering EMLED.
There might not be much life left in it, but it was better than nothing.

The scuffle lasted half a minute, shadows telling the tale on the walls around her as two creatures snarled at each other and blood spilled.
Pain flared through her calf as she tried to crawl away.
Come on...
you can do it.
Ingrid thrust the EMLED up behind her as the snarls died down, and silence fell.