Blood Secrets - By Jeannie Holmes Page 0,98
and limped toward the stairs. He reached the steps and balanced himself between the wall and handrail. On one foot, he bunny-hopped up the first flight.
Sirens whooped outside as Damian and the others arrived. Varik gritted his teeth and repeated the process to hop up the remaining flight of stairs to the second floor.
Downstairs, the front door banged open and a cacophony of shouts filled the house.
Varik located the oversized Duchamp print in the hallway. He knew it concealed a door, if he could just find the opening trigger.
“Varik!” Damian’s voice boomed downstairs.
He didn’t answer. He ran a hand over the edges of the ornate frame and felt a hidden latch. When he flipped the trigger, the concealed door swung open to reveal another narrow set of stairs.
“Baudelaire!” Damian called. “Answer me, goddamn it!”
He tried to bunny-hop the new stairs but their narrowness prevented it. “Alex!” He listened for a response or any sign of movement. “If you can hear me, answer me, baby!”
Silence rang in his ears.
Fear spurred him into action. Grimacing with each step that scraped over his injured leg, he crawled on hands and knees up the stairs.
He reached the attic and saw Alex lying motionless a few feet from the stairs. “Alex?”
She didn’t move.
“Baby,” he called, crawling to her. “Baby, it’s me. I’m here.” Her face was turned away and he gently moved her head toward him.
Unseeing emerald eyes stared into his soul.
“Alex?” He shook her shoulders. “Alexandra!” He felt for a pulse at her throat and found none. “No, no, no! Don’t do this to me! Alex!”
Stampeding footsteps rushed up the stairs. Damian and two Enforcers carrying medical kits entered the attic. One of the medics knelt beside Alex and began CPR while the other attempted to check Varik’s wounds.
“I’m fine,” he growled and pushed the medic away. “Help her.”
The medic glanced at Alex and then Damian, who nodded, and the medic slid over to assist his partner.
Varik stayed beside her, holding her hand. “I can’t lose her, Damian,” he whispered as the big vampire squatted next to him. “Not like this.”
Damian gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
As the medics continued to work on Alex, tears fell from Varik’s face to land on Alex’s hand. Minutes ticked by with no change and it took Varik a moment to realize the medics had ceased their effort.
“Why did you stop? Don’t stop! She’s not—” His words ended in a strangled choke. “She’s not …”
“Varik,” Damian said softly. “They’ve done all they can. She’s gone.”
He shook his head. “No. I don’t believe that. I would know. I would feel it!”
“You have to let her go.”
“No!” Varik shoved Damian away. “She’s not dead! We’re bond-mates! I would know!” Pain ripped through him, tearing his soul in two. He brushed away the hair from her face. “I would know,” he whispered.
He gently gathered her in his arms. As he looked into her unblinking eyes, anger burned away his grief and he lifted his head, shouting at the ceiling. “Bernard! You bring her back to me! Do you hear me? Bring her back like you brought me back!”
Fresh tears flowed in the tracks left by others as he looked down at Alex. “Bring her back,” he whispered. He rocked in place with her. “Bring her back … bring her back … bring her back …”
twenty-two
ALEX OPENED HER EYES AND DISCOVERED A GRAY GRANITE tombstone inches from her face. She sat up, looking around at the rows of stone monuments and scattered trees. It was a landscape she knew too well—St. Michael’s Cemetery in Louisville, the place where she’d discovered her father’s body.
Resting her back against the grave marker, she tried to remember what happened and how she’d gotten to the Shadowlands. Her mind was a jumble of distorted images and emotions. The more she tried to make sense of it, the less sense the images actually made.
“Hello, Princess.”
She wasn’t surprised to see her father strolling toward her. “Hi, Daddy.”
He stopped in front of her. Worry knitted his brow as he studied her.
His silence wore on her. “Is there something wrong? Do I have something in my teeth?”
“How did you get here, Princess?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, I just sort of woke up here. Why?”
“Look behind you.”
Alex glanced over her shoulder at the tombstone and gasped. She spun around in order to better see the name carved in the stone. “Is this real?”
“It can be. It’s for you to decide.”
She traced the outline of each letter with her finger: Alexandra