Half Blood Rising novel Chapter 20

“Hold on, we haven’t checked this tomb yet. Malcom must’ve been feeding on someone since he was locked inside,” I said, and then a second later, I moved past the newly made vampire and entered the darkness, taking the flashlight from Dimitry. I had to cover my mouth as the smell was overwhelming and instantly made me feel nauseous. Blood was everywhere, dripping down the walls and pooling along the floor—it was all around me. Even dried and crusted blood remained from what seemed to be previous meals. I had to steady myself to keep from gagging. It was gruesome. I’d never seen anything like it. After my first assessment, I assumed the tomb was empty, that no one could survive such horrendous conditions, not even a vampire.

Yet, I kept catching wafts of a familiar scent, one I knew well, so I walked further in until I saw a body. It was Lachlan. But he looked dead, lifeless, and my heart stopped, but then I reminded myself that full-blooded vampires were practically walking corpses. His body was littered with open wounds; Malcom must have been feeding off him for a long time. The clan must have locked them in here together, hoping Lachlan would lose his marbles after constantly being bitten by a newly made vamp.

“Guys, over here, now,” I shouted as I tried to drag his body out of the darkness, away from all that blood. I kept telling myself he was going to be all right, that he’d just lost a lot of blood. Damn it, why did I care so much?

“It’s Lachlan! Come on, let’s get him out of here,” Marco said as he stood behind me.

Judas and Karina were there, too. My heart was thwacking against my ribcage.

“He’s lost a lot of blood, and his light is fading,” Karina added, and that wasn’t a good sign. I didn’t know how Karina was able to sense something so unique for every supernatural. His aura was weak, but that’s all I could see. Obviously, her abilities were much more developed.

Judas and Marco lifted the unconscious Scot and carried him out of the tomb. Dimitry was holding Malcolm who suddenly seemed even more alert and ready to feed again. When he tried to bite the large Russian, Dimitry knocked him out cold.

“He’s lucky, very lucky that we got here in time,” Dimitry said. “I suspect there might be more newly made breeds inside the other tombs, but we haven’t got time to take care of them. We are in too much danger, and the other ancient vampires might notice something is wrong. Let’s make our way back to the van.”

Dimitry was right; these humans had been turned into vampires for a reason, and, besides, we still needed to track Dorothy. First things first: we had to get out of here without bringing too much attention to ourselves. The other vampires hadn’t attacked just yet, but I kept waiting for something to happen.

We knew Malcolm was going to be taken care of by the council members, so we left him in the basement. Outside, rain was pouring down heavily, so perhaps that was the reason why there were only a handful of guards who’d attacked us earlier. The boys transported Lachlan inside the van. Dimitry must have called the council already, because three black Mercedes’ arrived. I’d worked with Tristan long enough to recognise members of the High Council, mages and fae. They usually gave me an anxiety attack. I hated dealing with officials.

Dimitry talked to a few, while Karina and Judas were trying to revive Lachlan. I needed to stop thinking about him this way, especially now. I hoped Dimitry believed me now, and I wouldn’t be expelled. Malcolm had drained a lot of his blood—Lachlan was barely conscious. I didn’t really know what sort of effect vampire blood had on the newly made vampire, but I suspected it had given him not only strength but magic as well.

Ten minutes later, everyone was in the van. Dimitry shook hands with some officials and climbed in, too, then he banged on the partition window on the other side, and the van started moving. After Marco used his fae magic on Lachlan, his wounds slowly began to heal. The road was bumpy, but Lachlan started coming around.

“Gee, hen, I thought I might never see you again,” he said, opening his eyes and noticing me straight away. I didn’t want others to notice I’d developed some kind of crush on him. It was bad enough I’d never been with a man as a half-breed.

“Too bad. You have to tolerate me for a bit longer, but you’ll be happy to know I almost got the boot,” I told him, ignoring the warming sensation around my heart. Lachlan looked terrible and his clothes were torn—he must have been caught off guard by several ancients, because he was very experienced.

“What the hell happened, man?” Judas asked. “If it wasn’t for Jaymin, you would have turned to ash in no time.”

The driver, whose face we’d still yet to see, was speeding through the bumpy road. Lachlan managed to lift himself up, and my heart began beating more steadily. Someone needed to break the bad news to him, that his girlfriend was the one who’d set him up.

“What did you do this time, hen?” he asked.

“Nothing much, let’s just say I was in the right place at the right time, but of course, I had to kill a vampire to find out where they were keeping you,” I said and started cleaning my knives.

His eyes were invasive. “Why would you do that?” he asked, and I frowned. Everyone was listening, and I felt awkward talking about it here.

“Someone had to. Your girlfriend betrayed Moonlight. She was the one who sold you out to the clan,” I said, wanting him to stop looking at me as if he desired more than my blood. It felt like he was peering into my soul, as tingles spread along the length of my spine.

“Where’s Ramona? Can someone explain what happened?” he asked more aggressively, but Karina pushed him back against the seat.

“Just chill and let us get you back to headquarters first, then we’ll explain everything. Jaymin saved your life—that’s what happened. Ramona’s been dirty the entire time. She made a deal with some mage,” Karina said, folding her arms against her chest. She was angry and Lachlan’s wounds opened again. The smell of his blood… the scent was strong, and I licked my lips.

Lachlan wasn’t a patient man and he wanted to know everything, so Karina went through it all until we reached headquarters.

We still had a lot of work ahead of us, but I needed to have a long and very honest conversation with Pretty Boy. I had to tell him I’d overheard him in that basement.

* * *

“I was wrong about you and I owe you an apology. If it wasn’t for you, we would have been picking up pieces of Lachlan from inside that tomb,” Oldman said when we returned to headquarters. She touched my arm, and her energy rushed through me instantly. I flinched. I still wasn’t used to being touched.

Roxanna told Marco to get lost, and she started taking care of Lachlan herself. She locked the door to her room as soon as he was transported upstairs.