Chapter 59
"Location," Thomas requested.
"Second floor, south-west corner bedroom."
"Understood."
From downstairs the noise intensified. He hoped his colleagues could keep Mller and his thugs at bay until he had freed Portia and brought her to safety. Only then would he return to finish off Mller.
Portia's eyes darted toward the door. "Who's with you?"
"Half of Scanguards. They're fighting Mller and his people." He refrained from referring to Mller as her father, hoping to keep reality away from them. Because reality was a cruel mistress. The fact was he hated the father of the woman he loved, and he was here to finish him off once and for all.
Their gazes clashed. "You're going to kill him, aren't you?"
Zane withstood her scrutiny for a few seconds before he broke the contact. "I'll kill anybody who hurts you."
When he got no answer, he looked back at her and noticed that she'd closed her eyes again.
Panic seared through him. "Baby girl!"
"So tired," Portia mumbled. "So thirsty."
He had to do something before she slipped too far. He needed her coherent to get her out of here, and the way she looked right now, he wasn't sure she'd be able to walk. Even though he knew that vampire blood would provide her only with temporary nourishment, it would boost her strength for a short while, long enough until he could get her human blood. It had worked for him when he'd fed off the Czech vampire at the camp. It would work now.
"You have to feed." He propped her head up.
Portia opened her eyes halfway, and he placed his wrist at her lips.
"Do it, baby girl, it'll ease the thirst." Even if it would weaken him by a fraction, it needed to be done. He couldn't bear seeing her suffer.
When her mouth opened wider and her fangs grazed his skin, Zane s.h.i.+vered involuntarily. G.o.d, he'd missed her. It seemed impossible, but in the short time that he'd known her, she'd become a part of not just his life, but of him.
The sharp tips of her fangs drove into his skin and lodged in his flesh. Heat suffused his body as she began feeding from him.
"Oh, G.o.d," he murmured, trying to hold back the clawing need to slide over her and take her. This wasn't the time or the place.
The sound of the door hinges creaking behind him, made him spin his head around.
"You!" Mller's furious glare lashed at him as he charged into the room.
In a split-second, Zane took in his opponent. He looked just like he had then: dark blond hair and high cheekbones. But he was also different. His mouth was twisted into a snarl, and fangs protruded from it. His eyes might have still been brown, but now they shone red. He was in full fighting mode.
With Portia's fangs still lodged in his wrist, Zane lost a valuable second trying to pry his arm from her. Her eyes flew open, and despite her weakened state, she seemed to sense her father in the room. She instantly released his wrist, returning his full range of motion to him.
But Mller was already on him, one claw slicing into Zane's shoulder. The jacket he wore protected him. "Don't touch her, you filthy Jew!"
Zane jumped up and barreled into Mller, both of them cras.h.i.+ng against the dresser. "You hurt her, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" He landed a right hook against his enemy's cheek.
Mller's head whipped to the side but snapped back just as fast. "You sullied her!" He underscored his point by kicking his knee upwards.
But Zane had antic.i.p.ated the move and blocked it, swiveling sideways to avoid a hit into his groin. Figured that the b.a.s.t.a.r.d was going for his nuts.
"She's mine!" Zane bit out between clenched teeth.
A blow against his solar plexus silenced him, the wind rus.h.i.+ng from his lungs faster than from a popping balloon. Recovering quickly, Zane counterattacked, serving up his fists by aiming for Mller's head again.
Blood splattered as Mller's skin split open near his eye.
Glaring furiously, Mller used his entire bodyweight to throw himself against Zane, robbing him of his balance. He stumbled backwards, hearing Portia's distressed scream as he crashed into the door to the next room. The impact swung it wide open, putting Zane on his a.s.s in the other room.
Leveraging himself against the desk he'd hit, Zane pulled himself up just as Mller launched himself at him again. Zane kicked his leg out, slamming it sideways into Mller's knees.
Mller's face distorted in pain. "f.u.c.king a.s.shole! I should have killed you back then."
"Too late."
Zane catapulted forward and landed a barrage of blows against his opponent while receiving several vicious ones in return. Both felt good. This fight had been a long time coming. He couldn't simply cut it short by drawing one of the weapons inside his jacket. He needed this, needed to beat the man who'd robbed him of so much, stolen the life of so many, and tortured the most innocent of them all.
Breathing hard, his eyes scanned the room, a study. A desk with computer equipment, a book case, a chair and a chest of drawers was all it contained. Plenty Mller could use against him. And Mller would have to since they were equally strong. Their body ma.s.s was similar, and neither had any advantage in strength or agility. At any other time, Zane would have enjoyed fighting an opponent who was his equal, challenging him in every way. Not tonight. Tonight, there were only two things he wanted, making Mller pay and getting Portia out of this h.e.l.lhole.
From the ground floor, he could now hear a cacophony of sounds-bodies and furniture slamming into walls and floors, shouting, as well as gun shots. Scanguards had managed to storm the
Knowing how Brandt's son had acted irrationally when his emotions had gotten the better of him, he decided to provoke Mller into making the same mistake.
After a blow against his shoulder, Zane whirled around his axis, never losing his sure footing.
"Your daughter wants me. She can't get enough of me, a dirty Jew!" he provoked Mller.
Mller snarled, baring his fangs in aggression.
Zane laughed into his face. "Yes, I've had her. And I'll keep her."
His words seemed to have the right effect.
"Never!" promised Mller. "She's better than you!"
His claw swung so fast, Zane barely saw it coming. Trying to avoid it was futile. It slashed one side of his neck open, blood instantly dripping from the wound. It wasn't deep enough to cause him any immediate harm, but the longer the blood loss continued, the weaker it would render him.
Knowing he had to act fast, Zane delivered his own deluge of blows, kicks, and slashes. Mller successfully blocked some of them, but others..h.i.t their target. Zane panted heavily, pumping his body full with much needed oxygen. His brain told him to end it, to pull his silver blade and slice him open as Mller had done with his victims, but his heart protested. It wasn't satisfied yet. He needed to pound into Mller longer, to hurt him, to connect his claws with his flesh, to injure him with his bare hands.
Only like this, Zane felt his need for revenge slowly but steadily trickling away. Only as he felt his claws connect with Mller's skin and the blood from his wounds run over his hands, was the beast in him happy. He was finally paying him back. Zane soaked up that knowledge, just as he inhaled the stench of Mller's blood and the smell of his sweat. The more he pounded into him, the more adrenaline he felt shooting through him.
A high spread in his body despite the injuries Mller inflicted on him. And he wanted to make it last until he was truly ready to send his enemy to h.e.l.l where he belonged.
Zane cornered his opponent, trapping him against the wall, the bookcase to his left preventing him from sliding past him. From his right, Mller grabbed a wall lamp with its frilly lampshade and yanked it from its connection, ripping the electrical cord from the wall. He raised his arm to hit Zane with it, but Zane sidestepped him, and the lamp crashed through the open door, landing in the bedroom next door instead. From the corner of his eye, he saw it cras.h.i.+ng against the grill in front of the fireplace.
A startled scream from Portia made him take his eyes off his opponent. It was his mistake. Mller's hand had reached for a heavy iron bookend and now slammed it in the direction of Zane's head. By snapping to the side, he avoided a direct blow to the head, but the bookend hit his collarbone instead. He heard the sound of bones breaking, and felt the corresponding pain radiate through his body.
s.h.i.+t! It was time to stop fooling around and end this.
Zane reached his hand into the inside pocket of his jacket and jerked out the first thing his fingers gripped. The wooden stake felt smooth in his palm. It would have to do. He would have rather used his silver knife to provide a more painful death for Mller, but there was no time to change his weapon now with Mller attacking him even more ferociously than before.
He wasn't the only one who wanted to take the fight to the next level. Mller had obviously also decided to kick things up a notch. As Mller jumped toward the desk, he s.n.a.t.c.hed the chair in the next instant, smas.h.i.+ng it against the wall with such force that it splintered.
Zane went after him but couldn't prevent Mller from taking one of the chair's broken feet and gripping it like a stake. As he clashed with his opponent, Zane's free hand snapped around Mller's neck and squeezed. Mller's hand holding the stake shot forward, but Zane blocked it with his elbow and continued squeezing.
"This is for all those you tortured," Zane hissed and raised his arm holding the stake. He swung.
"Help me! Zane! Fire!"
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT.
Portia's scream rocketed through Zane's bones. In the same instant he smelled it, the smoke his brain had blocked out to deal with Mller. He blinked.
Without completing his swing, Zane dropped his arm and released Mller in the same breath. His eyes snapped to the door of the bedroom were Portia was captured. Flames engulfed the area in front of the fireplace. The armchair in front of it was already in flames that now shot up to the ceiling, the smoke they created billowing below.
Thinking only one thought, Zane charged into the room, the flames licking at him as he rushed pa.s.sed the fireplace.
Portia jerked on her restraints, her eyes filled with panic. Her face was bathed in sweat, her feet scrambling to move closer to the head of the bed and farther away from the fire.
"Portia!" he screamed. "Oh, G.o.d!"
He reached her and jerked on the silver handcuffs, ignoring the searing pain on his flesh. But the steel beam behind the bed to which the cuffs were fastened didn't budge.
Touching the b.u.t.ton on his earpiece he tried to connect with his colleague. "Thomas, where are those wire cutters?"
Only static came through the line. s.h.i.+t!
"Help me," Portia pleaded.
They both knew she would die if the fire engulfed her. It wasn't the smoke inhalation that would kill her, not like it would kill a human, but the fire itself that would burn her flesh from her bones while she was still alive.
Pus.h.i.+ng the ugly thoughts from his mind, he tried to calm her. "I'll get you free. I promise."
"Oh, G.o.d, Portia!" came Mller's voice from the door.
Zane glanced back at him for a second and saw him standing there, hesitating. Pulling his silver blade from his jacket, Zane took one of Portia's wrists.
"Keep still."
She pressed her lips together and watched him with fear-filled eyes that now brimmed with unshed tears.
He stuck his knife into the lock of the cuff and twisted. Back and forth he tried, first pus.h.i.+ng in the tip of the knife only a fraction, then pressing deeper and trying again. But he found no traction. No clicking sound indicated that the cuffs would spring open. Pain seared through his injured shoulder, making his hand shake and the knife slip from the lock. He tried again.
The heat at his back made pearls of sweat drip from his forehead. He had to try harder. Without taking his eyes off the handcuffs, he wedged the knife's blade in between a ridge and twisted it. The blade bent.
"I love you, Zane," Portia whispered, a tear rolling down her cheek. He realized she was saying goodbye.
Her eyes strayed past him, where he knew the fire was encroaching on the bed.
But he couldn't turn to see how close it was already. And he couldn't let her believe that he would let her die.
"No, Portia, I won't leave you here."
He turned his face back to the door, where Mller still stood in horror, but the flames were about to cut off that route. "The keys!" Zane pleaded. "You must have the keys!"
Casting a cautious look at the flames, Mller answered, "Your life in exchange for hers."
Zane stared at him in disbelief. There was no time to lose, and her father was bargaining when any second the room would be entirely engulfed in flames?
"What's your answer?" Mller taunted and pulled the keys from his pants pockets, dangling them in the air.
Zane stood. "Free her first, then kill me."
"No!" Portia screamed with more force than her weakened state should allow her. "Never! I'd rather die!"
Her gaze collided with Zane's. "If you're dead, he'll use me just like he planned." Her eyes pleaded with him.
For a moment, time froze, and the wheels in his mind worked. She was right of course, but he couldn't let her die. Nor could he allow her father to use her for his nefarious plans.
There was one other way of freeing her though, but it was the most desperate one. And the most barbaric. He shuddered at what he had to do.
"Do you trust me?"
Portia nodded.
"If I cut one of your hands with the silver knife, you're free from the cuffs." The other handcuff would remain on her other wrist, but he could slip the silver chain connecting them from around the steel beam, freeing her.
A gasp issued from her lips, and her eyes squeezed shut.
"Your body will heal itself and grow you a new hand."
Her throat worked hard as she parted her lips. "It's the only way, isn't it?"
He nodded solemnly. He wished there were another.
"Do it."
"No!" Mller screamed from the door, suddenly advancing on the flames as if he wanted to burst through them. "You can't do that!"
Zane paid him no heed. Instead, he pulled another stake from his pocket. "Bite on this."