Sam ran, and as he did so, his fury with Emily mounted. Why couldn't she leave him and Leah in peace? For weeks after the imprint, he had stayed with Leah. They had not only maintained their relationship, but had even strengthened it in some ways. If it weren't for Emily's neediness, he and Leah would still be together. They would still be happy. They would still be side by side, not separated by miles, pain, and anger. His arms felt so empty. He missed the sound of her voice, her laughter in his ear, her soothing words in his mind. He missed the warmth of her hand in his, the way his heart skipped a beat when he saw her, and the way her eyes lit up when she saw him. He envisioned the way her long lashes brushed against her cheeks, the sensuous plumpness of her lips, the silky luster of her hair, and the smooth column of her neck. His body ached for the soft weight of her breast, the slim dip of her waist, the inviting curve of her ass, and the long lines of her legs. He missed being over her, under her, beside her, inside her.
And he knew she missed him too. He was certain of it. He could feel it in his gut, and not in the mystical way that his imprint told him things about Emily. He knew because Leah was his best friend, and the feelings they had cultivated together over the years could not be gone. In fact, they would not disappear at all. But she would always love the real him, not this imposter he was becoming. If only he could exorcise this demon inside him, he could win her back. He was certain of it. But he had to make sure that she would survive long enough for him to find a way.
He headed for Seattle.
He knew when Seth tried to talk to Emily, because he could feel it in the twisting of his gut. Knots formed but then reopened, but then they tangled again. Her chains tried to call him back, but he fought his way forward. He slowed, but he did not stop, and he never turned around. It was exhausting, but every step away from Emily was a battle worth fighting. He considered it a victory when he reached city limits.
He wanted to find Leah as soon as possible, but that would be counterproductive. He was here to find Victoria and kill her. Then he would find a way to break his imprint, and only then might he be worthy of Leah once more.
Seth had told him that Jacob and Leah were combing through the city trying to track Victoria by her scent. They were having modest success at finding trails but had not made any kind of contact with her, because every time they thought they might be getting close, the trails simply ended, usually in parking lots, bus stops, rail, or streetcar stations. Often she seemed to be frequenting the shadier areas of town, which confirmed Sam's suspicion that she was probably looking for potential victims.
He was tempted to start exploring the city immediately, but he knew that the search would be long and grueling. He hadn't had a truly restful sleep since he had been parted from Leah. After all, the sensation of her body pressed against his, the sound of her even breathing, and the reassuring comfort she provided had soothed him to sleep since they were small. But today he was so tired that he could probably sleep standing up in his human form. He began to look for a suitable place to curl up in his wolf form to rest, but Embry, who was patrolling back home, convinced him to go indoors, where his scent would be less likely to attract any passing vampires. So he checked into a cheap motel, pulled back the covers of the lumpy double bed, and collapsed into a dreamless sleep.
When he awoke, he called Seth for an update. Leah's brother had tried to talk to Emily, but he hadn't made any headway. She simply wasn't listening. He visited her and they had exchanged pleasantries, but as soon as she realized that he wanted to have a serious discussion with her, she announced that she had to leave. He had no reason to disbelieve her, but he later found out that she had immediately gone to Kim's house. Jared implied that she had been upset.
That same evening, though, Sue met with Billy and the other elders. Other than a few holdouts, led by Old Quil, the council was starting to see that imprinting was not the pure and good force the legends implied. They were beginning to question whether their knowledge of their own history was comprehensive. After all, women were thought not to be able to phase, and Leah's transformation had already turned that idea on its head. Sue rightly pointed out that Leah ought to warrant equal consideration as the imprints, if not more. Old Quil blamed Leah herself for upsetting the natural balance within the pack, but most of the other elders recognized that she had earned her place as a protector with her own blood. She had more battle experience than any other wolf and had personally eased the transition of every one of her brothers. Mrs. Lowery pointed out that she was the only reason that most of the boys hadn't flunked out of school. Furthermore, the other elders believed that Sam and Jared's abandonment of the pack during battle was far more concerning than anything Leah may or may not have done. Both Sue and Billy believed that the imprints had too much influence over their respective wolves, and they were gradually convincing others.
The next day, Billy planned to speak with Emily. She might be able to avoid Seth, and she would probably discount anything Sue had to say, but ignoring the chief of the tribe was too blatantly disrespectful.
Sam left for his search feeling optimistic. He bought a map from the front desk and set out for the nearest homeless shelter on foot, where he thought Victoria would be likely to find victims who could disappear unnoticed. He was regretful that he couldn't move through the city as his wolf. Not only would it be much faster, but he would feel safer as well. He found no trails at the first facility he visited, but he lingered in the alley behind the building and listened carefully to the conversations filtering outside. He overheard one of the residents telling another that his dealer could usually be found in a nearby park. Sam searched the area, finding plenty of illegal activity but no evidence of vampires, and he filed away the location. It might be worth another visit after dark. Then he moved on to the next shelter.
By the end of the day he had investigated four shelters and two soup kitchens. Two of them had been visited by vampires, but the scents were very old and left no evidence of where their owners had gone, and were so degraded that Sam couldn't even tell if Victoria had left them. He wondered how many vampires were hidden in a city as large as Seattle. It seemed like a mecca for the undead: plentiful prey, good cloud cover, amusements galore. Sam wondered why the wealthy Cullens had bothered with dreary little Forks; not only did they stick out in the small town like the freaks they were, but they resided next to the only known population of shifters, their only natural enemies. Here in the anonymity of the city, they could have blended in almost seamlessly.
On his way back to the hotel, he found a scent he wasn't expecting: Leah's. It was fresh. She had stood in this very spot within the past hour. Jacob had been with her. He didn't hesitate. He followed it until he found her. She was sitting in a diner across a table from Jacob. Although he wanted badly to talk to her, to touch her, to be with her, he stayed at a safe distance, peering at her from an alley across the street. If she spotted him, she would turn him away. So he settled for watching her.
He wasn't the only one eyeing her, but as usual, she didn't even notice. No one was a threat, so she just ate her meal and talked with Jacob. She drew stares, sideways glances, and amused smiles from the other patrons. Between the enormous amount of food in front of her, her incongruously shapely figure, her unmistakable beauty, and her demeanor, she was impossible to ignore. She was dressed plainly and wore no make up, but she and Jacob were having an animated discussion that kept making her laugh. The effect on her was simply beautiful. Her whole face lit up. Her eyes were shining, her shoulders shook, and she had the most dazzling smile on her face. Gorgeous though it was, it wasn't his special smile, and her dimples never appeared. He felt oddly satisfied that Jacob couldn't elicit that particular expression from her. It still belonged to Sam even if she herself was slipping away. Still, Sam couldn't remember the last time he had seen her so free and easy. It made him happy even though he wished he was the one who made her laugh. He wasn't sure when he would get the chance to see her looking so happy again, and he wouldn't waste the opportunity, so he ignored his increasing hunger and stood in the cold for as long as possible. He reluctantly slipped away when the waitress gave them the check, not wanting to be spotted. It never occurred to him that upon leaving the building, she would notice his scent just as he had noticed hers.
X-x-x-x-X
The next day was unusually sunny and bright, making him discouraged that any vampires would be out. The first shelter he visited turned up nothing, but a bus stop in front of the nearby soup kitchen reeked of vampire. The scent did not belong to Victoria, but it was still the best lead he had. He lingered by the entrance, eavesdropping, and overheard a conversation about a young man who had eaten there yesterday but had not arrived that morning to meet a friend. Most of the older patrons shrugged it off, assuming he was holed up somewhere with a stash of dope, but his friend swore up and down that he had been sober from heroin for months, and he was very concerned. He was convinced that something bad had happened to him. Sam stuck around but didn't hear anything else useful. He knew that there were dozens of reasons that the missing man might not be there, but he couldn't help but wonder if Victoria had anything to do with it. When the next bus arrived, Sam got on.
There was absolutely nothing suspicious about the bus. Sam hadn't expected to find a vampire simply riding around town, but that didn't stop him from closely examining the eyes of anyone he could see. No red eyes looked back at him. He took careful note of where each stop was located, and at the end of the line, he got out off the bus and retraced the route. At the seventh stop, he picked up the scent again but immediately lost it. The vampire had gotten off here, but it was a transit center, and there were trains and busses moving away in every direction. Sam sighed, picked a transfer that would take him to one of the outlying soup kitchens, and hopped on. There was no reason to believe he would find the vampire this way, but riding public transit was as good a way to learn the layout of the city as any other.
As he watched the city go by, carefully filing away information about the populace and landmarks at each location, he began to feel his imprint pulling at him once more. One second, he had to hold onto the seat to keep from jumping out of the bus and running home. In the next moment, he felt the bonds of the imprint loosening. But they never broke. He knew exactly what was happening. Billy was talking to Emily. She was having second thoughts, but each one of those was countered by her own desires. Sam could feel each emotion passing through her as it if was his own. She was angry, afraid, ashamed, and frightened all at once. For several minutes, he couldn't see anything else around him. The imprint demanded that he return to her, that he comfort her, devote himself to her, and remind her that she was the center of the universe.
He refused.
By the end of the day, he was exhausted. After about an hour, the conversation with Billy had ended, but Emily didn't feel any better. She actually felt worse. At some point Sam deduced that she had decided to cry on Kim's shoulder, because the imprint pulled at him more fiercely, but the sharp sensation of Emily's pain faded slightly. He pushed himself on, familiarizing himself with two more bus lines.
After sunset, he visited one more shelter, finding another stale vampire's scent that went nowhere. The hint made him hopeful that his strategy would pay off, and just as he boarded his final bus of the day, he found what he was looking for: Victoria's scent. It was very old and stale, but he would know it anywhere. It leant credence to his theory that she was trolling the city. He imagined her sitting where he sat, carefully examining each person she saw, just like he was. But unlike him, she would be looking for victims. This particular bus line moved through some of the poorest parts of the city. He carefully memorized the route as the road passed beneath him. When he exited in the transit station, he realized that it was so late that the line was closed until morning. He contemplated searching further on foot, but in the dark and alone in the city, where he was unlikely to be able to phase, and after the draining day he had had experiencing Emily's emotions secondhand, he would be at a severe disadvantage. He headed back to the motel.
His rest was fitful. All night he dreamt of battle. He heard the howls of his brothers, smelled the stench of rotten flesh, and took blows from every side. He couldn't see the features of any opponent clearly, only flashes of glittering, pale skin and burning red eyes. He was surrounded. Every time he threw off one vampire, another was upon him, and he thrashed, twisted, bit, and clawed until he fell away. He was desperate, and it was not because he was in danger. He was frantic because of the only clear voice that broke through the fray. He heard Leah screaming his name, just as she did when he had abandoned her for Emily. He never saw her fully, never figured out exactly what was happening to her, but he heard the sound of bones breaking, skin tearing, and cries of agony. And in the moment before he woke, he had a vision of blood, mangled limbs, and sightless eyes. Normally he would have awoken at this point in a nightmare, but instead the dream simply started over at the beginning. A few details changed, but the end remained the same. He never saved Leah, and he lost track of the number of times he had the dream.
He finally woke midday feeling more fatigued than he had when he had gone to bed. A light rain was falling. He worried it might wash away trails but hoped the vampires would be active enough to catch. He retraced the route of the last bus he had ridden the night before searching for any other signs of Victoria. He moved slowly, exploring the entrances to buildings, alleys, and transit stops; he didn't want to miss anything.
Unsurprisingly, he discovered nothing in the busy commercial district at the beginning of the line. But as he moved farther out, the buildings became increasingly unkempt, the storefronts dusty, and the green spaces fewer and farther apart. By sunset, the rainfall was steady and he had arrived in a run-down neighborhood, where prostitutes tried to gain his attention. He ignored them, just as he ignored the two drug deals that he walked past, because he found what he was looking for. He smelled vampires. More than one.
His nose didn't burn, so he knew weren't immediately nearby. He moved forward, sniffing the air. The stench was strong despite the rain. He picked out three different individuals, and one of them was unmistakably Victoria's. Then he spotted a bus stop under a burned out street lamp, and he knew that that must be their main point of access to the transit system. The fact that multiple vampires converged on this spot could mean that their nest was somewhere nearby.
Sam fully intended to follow the trails back to their source, but before he got a chance, a bus pulled up to the curb.
He knew before the smell hit him. There was something about his demeanor, the sunglasses despite the dark, the pasty shade of skin, the way he alternated between moving slightly too fast or not at all. Sam was nervous that the thing would smell his presence as soon as he got off the bus, and about the way he was eyeing a young woman in front of him. Sam sized up the vampire. He was tall for a human, which left him half a head shorter than Sam, who was substantially broader as well. As he watched, he realized that the creature had not yet learned the subtleties of mimicking human movements. His own excellent eyesight saw right through the dark glasses, and the vampire wasn't blinking. Neither did he take any breaths. He might be able to follow them without detection if the vampire didn't smell him.
The vampire wasn't paying any attention to him. He was too focused on his prey. He eyed the girl with a lustful hunger and followed her at a short distance. He didn't seem to notice the rain at all. Sam stayed behind them. She kept glancing at their reflection in passing windows as she walked. She picked up her pace, aware that someone was behind her. The vampire walked faster. She hitched her purse up on her shoulder and clutched her umbrella tightly. For now she was protected by the presence of other pedestrians on the street. The monster wouldn't do anything with witnesses in view.
When she unlocked the entrance of a dilapidated apartment building, Sam sighed in relief until he saw the vampire slip in behind her. He cursed and sprinted forward, but the door locked before he could reach it. He peered into the hallway in front of him. The vampire was following the girl up the stairs.
Frantically, he pushed intercom buttons, saying, "Delivery. Here with your food," until someone finally buzzed him in. He slammed open the door and followed the foul stench up three flights of stairs. Now he didn't need his acute sense of smell; he could hear the girl's frightened voice as clearly as if she was standing beside him. He jiggled the handle of her apartment, but it, too, was locked, so he kicked open the door.
The thing turned to him with a look of anger and confusion and shoved the girl behind him so forcefully that the drywall cracked on impact. "Who the fuck are you?" the vampire asked.
Sam didn't stop to answer. He simply lowered his shoulder and tackled him, shoving him as far away from the girl as he could. "Get out of here! Now!" She wouldn't be safe until she was far away, and he wanted her to leave so that he could phase and fight properly. He had no intention of exposing his secret to a stranger.
She scrambled back but didn't leave. Holding the back of her head and blinking slowly, she asked, "What's going on?"
The vampire kicked Sam across the room, where a chair broke underneath him. "Your boyfriend has a death wish," he sneered. Then he wrinkled his nose in distaste. "Damn. How can you stand to be around this guy? Does he ever bathe?"
"He's not my boyfriend," the girl replied without thought. "I don't know him."
Sam wondered if the vampire was connected to Victoria, or if she simply hadn't told him about the shifters. Either way, he needed to die. As Sam stood, he repeated, "Seriously. Run. Now."
"Then he's got some serious white knight syndrome. Funny thing about knights. They tended to die violent deaths," the vampire laughed. He leaped across the room, much farther than a human could, and the girl gasped in shock.
Sam was able to brace himself, and he met the impact with a right hook to the vampire's chin. The head snapped back, and as he righted itself, Sam saw a flash of surprise in his eyes. Despite the force with which he had made the tackle, his opponent hadn't registered his strength. Sam slammed his left fist into the side of the vampire's head before he regained his balance. "Get out! Run!"
The vampire found his feet underneath him and shrieked, raking his nails across Sam's chest and opening up four bloody lines. The girl started screaming at the sight. "No," the monster hissed. "Stick around a little. You can watch me tear this idiot to shreds."
Sam raised his hands as the vampire tried to get a hand around his neck, barely avoiding getting his throat crushed. "Go! Get the fuck out of here!" He grabbed the vampire's wrist and shoved back, but in his human body, he couldn't push the vampire off him.
The girl finally fled, and Sam didn't waste another second. Just as the vampire pulled back a fist to punch him in the face, he phased. His fingers turned into claws that ripped through the vampire's arm, and his teeth sharpened into razors. His bulk knocked his opponent onto his back, and the horrified thing started screaming in surprise and pain. The vampire planted both feet into his belly to kick him off, but he managed to get his jaws around one stony hand, and as he fell away, he tore the fist off at the wrist as he fell back onto the coffee table, which splintered.
In the pack mind, he heard Quil ask, Sam? What the hell?
Can we help? Embry asked. Where are you? Do you need backup?
He ignored them and focused on the monster in front of him. From the expression on his face, Sam was sure the thing didn't know what or who he was. The details were unimportant, though. All that mattered was which one of them walked away. The vampire landed on him while he was still on his back and punched at Sam's skull with both his stump and fist.
Shit! Get it off you! Quil yelled.
The thing was moving too quickly for him to get another bite at the remaining hand, so he clawed at the unprotected abdomen. He would have disemboweled a human, but the vampire just lost chunks of flesh.
Go for a crotch shot, Embry advised. I'll bet he still wants his junk even if it doesn't work anymore.
Sam raked his hand down, and the vampire reared back in pain as he mutilated it. He managed to kick the thing off with his own feet, and the vampire crashed against the cabinets across the room before panicking and going for the door.
Quil cheered, Fuck, yeah! Go castrate the bastard!
Grab your lighter! You're going to need it! Embry reminded him.
Sam snatched up the remnants of his pants in his mouth and gave chase, praying that no one would be in the hallway. The vampire ran for the stairwell and tried to jam the door with a broom that was leaning against the wall, but Sam broke through easily. He heard voices behind him, but they were muffled on the other side of closed doors, so he didn't think that anyone had seen him.
He raced to the roof. The vampire was running for the edge, whether to drop to the ground or leap to the next building, he didn't know. It didn't matter. Sam wasn't going to let the thing escape. He dropped his clothes and grabbed the vampire's foot in his jaw just as he was going over the side, and he dragged him back. The vampire kicked him in his muzzle, and he came away with a shoe instead of the foot he was hoping for, and they backed away from each other, both growling.
This time they circled each other warily.
Sam moved as soon as Embry told him, He's going to run again. He's too chicken to fight you unless you make him. His opponent met him mid air, but his weight was enough to give him the upper hand. He pinned the screaming creature against the brick walls of the stairwell. A crack appeared in the mortar, but the structure held. The vampire thrashed, but he kept it pinned down with his claws driven deep into the shoulders. The vampire tried to kick him away, but he absorbed the blows with his abdomen. It tried to reach him to break his arms, but he clamped his teeth down and tore off the face. Shrieks turned into the sound of tearing metal as he dismembered it, and the congratulations of his brothers ran in his ears. He phased back to his human body to retrieve the lighter from his shredded pants, hoping the rain wouldn't douse the flames. His clothes were no longer wearable, but the top of the vampire's jeans was still intact. He took them for his own use and set the squirming mass ablaze, grateful to discover that venom was highly flammable even in the rain. He managed it not a moment too soon, because he heard sirens approaching, and the buildings around him reflected the blue and red lights converging on his location. Either the escaped girl or her neighbors had called the police.
Sam was walking the perimeter of the rooftop trying to determine how to leave undetected when he spotted a flash of bright red hair disappearing around the edge of a building across the street. He couldn't be certain, but it looked like Victoria. He didn't hesitate. He backed up to get a running start and leapt across the gap to the next building. From the other end of this roof, he had a clear view of the street. She was nowhere to be seen, but police and paramedics were converging on the building he had just left. He knew he would be conspicuous in his shredded clothing, and even if nothing else happened, the police would likely question him. By then, Victoria would be gone. He needed to find clothes, so he broke the lock to the stairwell and hastily made his way to the basement. He tried door after locked door until the fourth opened to reveal a laundry room. All but one of the machines was empty, but he got lucky. He rummaged through the only dryer in use and found a still-damp tee shirt, hoodie, and matching sweatpants. They were tight and uncomfortably wet, and the pants were much too short for him, but they would have to do. He yanked on socks and hoped that no one would notice he had no shoes.
He made his way to the first floor and out the back door, examining his surroundings for any signs of danger. He looked into the alley that would bring him to the main street. It was empty, so he jogged forward and carefully peered around the corner. He immediately spotted the girl he had rescued. She was sitting in the back of an ambulance tearfully recounting her trauma to a police officer. Others were entering her building and telling her neighbors to go back inside their apartments. A few spectators were gathered on the other side of the street, wondering what was going on, but the weather had sent most people back indoors. Sam waited until no one was looking his way, pulled the hood over his head, and casually walked across the street unnoticed.
He picked up his pace as soon as he was out of sight. He no longer had any doubt. It was Victoria that had he had seen rounding this corner. Her scent was unmistakable. Had she seen him? If she was waiting on the ground for the one he had killed, she might have watched as he followed them into the building. It was less likely that she had spotted him on the roof; it was too high. But he had no way of knowing.
He followed the burning in his nose. Every time he passed an alley or turned a corner, he wondered if she would leap out at him and break his neck, but she never did. He was less concerned that she would try to escape via public transit; they were far from any of the bus or streetcar lines. But if she got into a car, he wouldn't have any way to track her. He started to jog, ignoring curious looks from the few people he passed.
He cursed when her trail ended abruptly in the middle of a deserted side street. He looked around, wondering where she had gone. Between the maze of buildings, public transportation, fire escapes and rooftops, she had too many routes of escape in the densely populated city. Was she above him? Speeding away in a car? Was she inside one of the buildings? He checked the nearby entrances, but she hadn't gone inside. He jumped up to the fire escapes that were in the vicinity, but she hadn't left her scent here either. He climbed up all the way to the roof just to make sure she hadn't simply scaled the wall; given her penchant for climbing trees to escape the wolves, he wouldn't have been surprised if she was jumping from rooftop to rooftop to get away from him. But here the air was clear. He sighed in frustration but used his vantage point to look for her.
A truck rumbled down the quiet street with a single clanging noise. He looked after it and realized what had made the sound: the manhole cover in the middle of the road. A young man passed by on a bicycle, so he waited until the street was clear to jump down to the ground, too impatient to climb down the fire escape again. He ran to the manhole and inhaled deeply. Yes. That was it. He checked to make sure no one was watching him, lifted the cover, and climbed down.
He set off after her. Fetid odors surround him, and he was jealous of Victoria because she didn't need to breathe. He knew she was faster than he was, so if she was running at her top speed, he wouldn't catch up to her until she slowed or stopped. He was glad Leah wasn't with him; she would try to leave him behind to fight Victoria by herself. He wondered where she was at this very moment. She was somewhere in the city above him, but where? Seattle was where he thought they would be right now, but not this way. They were supposed to be studying in the library or eating pizza in the union or trying to find a private moment away from their roommates long enough to have sex, not seeking out the worst parts of the city, sleeping on the ground as animals or scraping enough money together for dingy motel rooms, crawling through the sewers, and fighting for their lives.
As he ran, the sewer narrowed. Rivulets of water dripped through the sewer grates. He worried that it would wash away Victoria's scent, but it was too pungent, and he was following her too closely. He kept going as the skies opened up into a thunderstorm. Slowly, the water level rose from his ankles to his knees. Eventually her scent disappeared again, and he realized she must have climbed out of an open sewer grate. It was too narrow for him to pass through.
Then he heard voices above him, and he realized it was a good thing that he hadn't stuck his head up through the opening.
A high, reedy voice said, "Is this it?"
"Who knows. Who cares. At least we're out of that dump for a little bit. They're driving me crazy," a deeper voice replied.
"That was you just a couple weeks ago. Or have you already forgotten what it feels like?" the female asked.
"I don't want to be reminded, that's all. And I'm sick of being trapped in there, with or without the new ones. I'm starving, and they still sort of smell like food."
"You're always starving," she pointed out.
"So are you," he retorted. "Let's go find a snack, shall we?"
The female answered reluctantly, "I don't know. She was pretty clear that we're on lookout. I wonder why here, of all places?"
"Something needs to happen on lookout. I'm tired of being told that they're going to show up at any moment. It's like a bad tease. All this buildup, and then a great big lot of nothing. I'm ready for some action."
One of them moved into view. Sam could see ghostly pale skin through the opening above him. He shrank back, surprised that neither vampire had sensed his presence. Then he realized that the sounds of the rain and the volume of water rushing around him must be masking him. He looked around for a way out. If these vampires were talking about Victoria so disparagingly, she wasn't waiting for him to emerge. But their conversation implied that she and her allies were gathered somewhere nearby.
He went backward until he found an access point. He tried to look through as many of the nearby grates as he could to see if anyone would notice him crawling out of the sewers, but he saw no one. He jumped up to reach the bottom rung of the ladder and pulled himself up, then carefully lifted the manhole cover and peeked out. There was no one around, so he exited the sewer.
In front of him was a large, empty lot, overgrown with bent trees and high weeds. Behind him was a large garage, closed for the night. The loading docks for several businesses stretched out to both sides, and at the end of the block sat the rear of what had once been a gas station. On the other side, the back of a run down strip mall stretched another block. Farther down, an abandoned building rose a dozen stories high. Broken windows looked down at him, and he could see scorch marks marring the brick of the upper stories. A fire must have rendered the building untenable.
Sam crept to the shadow of the garage, not wanting to be spotted by the vampires he suspected were inside the otherwise empty tenement building. Through the rain, he could hear snatches of conversation from the two vampires he had left behind. He slunk along the back of the building toward their voices, and when he reached the corner, glanced around it. No one was in sight, so he crossed to the strip mall and ran silently to the other end. Now when he looked around the edge, he could see through the plexiglass windows of the old gas station. Facing one another on the sidewalk were a male and female vampire. They both appeared young. The female was petite and had long, black hair and light brown skin. The male was of average height and build and had pale blonde hair. When they turned their backs to him, he crossed to the gas station, and from there he eavesdropped on their conversation.
"I don't know how she does it," the female said. "I can't stop until they're dry."
"Me neither," he answered. "That's why we're out here and she's in there."
"If only they'd shut up! Can't we gag them or something?"
He replied, "I asked."
"Really?" She sounded surprised. "I'm pretty sure if I ask her the wrong thing, she's going to dismember me herself."
"I didn't ask her." He shook his head. "I asked Jonathan."
"Oh, the little boy toy. What'd he say?"
"She must have learned the hard way. Somebody tried, fucked it up, and now they're dead."
"I'm not surprised," she huffed. "She likes listening to them scream. The sound of suffering, it really gets her off."
He nodded. "Plus, if we gag them too soon, before they're really done turning, they could suffocate and actually die. And then what's the point? We might as well have just eaten them in the first place and saved ourselves all the trouble."
Sam realized that the abandoned building must be Victoria's lair. It was where she turned new vampires. She was probably inside, checking on the army she was building. How many allies did she have with her? He eyed the two in front of him. These he could kill by himself. He was certain. But how many more were inside?
He wanted to take out these two while he still had reasonable odds, but the building was very close. There was no way he could fight them here without being heard. Even if they didn't call for assistance, Victoria was sure to hear the distinctive sound of their dismemberment and see the fire that he would have to set in order to keep them from reassembling. Before he accidentally drew her forces outside, he wanted to find out how many there were. Then he would figure out how to separate them in order to kill them one by one, or better yet, how to get Victoria away from her bodyguards and end it altogether.
He crouched low, and when they turned away from him again, he sprinted to the next building. But this time, a gust of wind blew his scent directly to the sentries. "Hey, do you smell that?" the female asked.
He plastered himself out of sight against the brick and listened. "Yeah. Wet dog. So what? There's strays around," the male answered. He obviously didn't know anything about the shifters, and the one Sam had killed on the rooftop didn't seem to know what he was either.
But the other was better informed. "Maybe. A dog, or something… bigger. I'm going to go look. You watch the grate like she asked, in case it's a distraction."
"Distraction from what?" the male asked.
But she never answered him. Sam exploded into his wolf before she rounded the corner, and he bit her head off before she even had a chance to scream. He spat it aside as the body tried to assault him.
Sam? Sam! This time there were additional voices in his head alongside Embry's and Quil's. He blocked them out in order to focus on his immediate surroundings. He absorbed the blows to his flank on one side, and on the other, he stopped them by tearing her arm from her body.
The male vampire heard the awful noise and ran up to them just in time to catch the other arm midair as the body fell to the ground. Sam leaped, but not before the vampire let out a warning yell. The words ended in a whoosh of air as Sam slammed against him, sending him flying back. But he used the dismembered arm of the female like a baseball bat, catching Sam in the side of the head. They rolled away from one another.
The vampire righted himself before Sam did and rushed at him, but like the others he had just killed, it was inexperienced. Instead of leaping on his back, it came at him from the front still wielding the arm. As he gained his footing, Sam saw him pulling it back for another blow. He ducked low, and the vampire's momentum twisted his torso, exposing his flank to Sam's jaws. Sam didn't hesitate. Before the vampire could face him again, he tilted his head, lunged forward, and clamped his jaws around the vampire's body. He came away with an enormous chunk. The male screamed and staggered backward, dropping the arm. He looked down at himself. A third of his chest was missing. Sam jumped and slammed him into a dumpster. The vampire frantically beat at his skull with his fists, rendering Sam dizzy and his vision dim. But through his haze he clamped his jaws on the nearest body part and pulled. The body fell, and he spat out the head.
Why couldn't he see? Everything looked red, and there was yelling in his head. Get the fuck out of there, Sam!
Move!
Burn them!
No, don't, just get out! Run!
Take out the vamps!
When the conflicting instructions registered, he phased out quickly and wiped the blood out of his eyes and retrieved his lighter, which was in the pile of shredded clothes lying by the building. The world was spinning around him from his head injury, but it was starting to slow. He dimly heard the sound of running feet and hissing. What was he doing? He wasn't sure. He leaned against the building until he could see again, and when he noticed the female's disembodied head at his feet, her teeth gnashing in an attempt to bite his ankles, he lit her hair like kindling, and then he kicked it across the asphalt, where it landed against the remnants of the male's body.
He heard the distinct and unexpected sound of one pair of hands clapping. "That was quite a display." He looked up. She appeared from around the corner of the building.
"Victoria," he greeted her.
"The dog speaks," she said.
He smirked at her as he saw her eyes raking up and down his naked body. "You'll find that my bite is actually much worse than my bark."
"Which is why you and your fellow mongrels keep killing my friends. I'm aware."
He shook his head. "I don't care about your friends. I'm here to kill you."
"You ought to care about them," she smiled. He heard a thump above his head and looked up. An ebony-skinned female was balancing on the edge of the roof above him. "They'll be the last faces you ever see." A slender, pale male appeared to his right. "That's one of the things I love about this life, this eternal life." A petite brunette appeared from the empty lot. "Sometimes I give life." An Asian male with a shaved head melted out of the shadow behind Victoria. "And sometimes I take it away." A tall black male stepped out from behind the dumpster. "Aren't they beautiful? My creations." She glided toward him. "You would make an excellent specimen of a vampire. Shall I give you life? Or shall I take it away?"
He looked her in the eyes. "My kind can't be turned."
"A shame." She actually looked disappointed. "But your kind would make an excellent pet. Or at the very least, bait."
There was no way he would allow himself to be captured. If Victoria didn't have some sadistic torture to the death planned for him, she would use him against his pack. He had hurt them enough already. He refused to be manipulated as a pawn against them. He would rather die. There was only one thing he needed to do first: kill Victoria.
As they closed in on him, he phased. He aimed high when he leapt, narrowly avoiding the female that dropped down from the roof. But he didn't just dodge her. He flung himself above the head of another vampire, removing himself from the circle they had formed around him.
He shut out the voices of his brothers, needing all of his focus for combat.
He whirled on the group and arrowed himself directly at the startled leader. She expected him to run, not face six of them by himself. The Asian male stood between them, but Sam didn't bother with him. He simply knocked him out of the way with a swipe of his paw and jumped on Victoria. She raised her hands to defend herself, so he clamped his teeth around both of them at once and pulled. He spat them out and lunged for her head, but the brunette slammed into his shoulder and pushed him to the ground. She saved Victoria but made a fatal mistake and aimed too close to his head. He crushed her skull in his jaw and flung it to the side, where it rolled into the burning pile of its dead colleagues. As her body began to thrash, the other female rushed him from the left while the blonde male rammed him from the right. He felt his ribs snap at the male's impact, but rather than allow himself to be crushed between them, he dropped to the ground in the moment before the female reached him, bringing the male with him. Her momentum accidentally dislodged the male from his side.
He would have taken advantage of their fall and attacked them, but the Asian male ran at him. Behind him, Sam could see the black male trying to reattach one of Victoria's arms. He feinted to the left as his attacker jumped at him, absorbing the impact with his shoulder rather than his skull. While the male was pummeling at his broken ribs, knocking the breath out of him, he dropped his head and bit the right leg off at the hip. He saw the blonde male and black female running at him, and he shoved the screaming vampire back at them like a shield and shoved all three vampires against the building.
To his left, he could see the black male leave Victoria, whose left arm was reconnected, and sprint toward him. He was about to get pinned between four furious vampires, so he leapt out of the way just before it hit him. He skidded to a stop by the pile of burning body parts and quickly moved to the other side, and as the vampires approached him, he began to bat flaming chunks at them, ignoring the pain in his paw.
The projectiles barely slowed the unharmed vampires, but as soon as a spark hit the open stump of the male whose leg he had taken, the thing went up in flames. Sam jumped on top of the dumpster as Victoria's three remaining soldiers turned to look, and he took advantage of their distraction to jump over their heads and charge Victoria, who was trying to reattach her other arm.
Sam stopped her. He grabbed the limb in his teeth and threw it aside. She backhanded him, causing pain to shoot through his head, but when she swung her fist back at him again, he caught it in his jaw. Rather than bite it off, he used it to swing her around so that she crashed into the blonde male, who was about to jump onto his back. The blonde thudded to the ground but was unharmed, and the remaining male and female were right behind him.
As his lungs burned, Sam knew he had a chance. If he took off Victoria's arm and pushed her at the ones behind her, he could jump to the roof, and he might get away. But although he had killed five soldiers in her army, it would only be a matter of time until she made more, until she returned for Leah, for him, for his family, for his home. And now she would be on high alert. She would surround herself with bodyguards, murder countless innocents for her hunger, greed, and revenge, and when battle came, she might not even enter the fray. If he wanted to end this, he had to do it now, even if it meant that he would not get away. He faintly heard his brothers protesting, but his decision could not be swayed.
Sam shoved her to the ground, raking divots into her chest. He saw the blonde out of the corner of his eye while he pulled Victoria's hand off her arm. The blonde landed on his back as the other male jumped at his left flank and the remaining female came at him from the right. He felt more of his ribs snap on his left, and he felt his right femur crack from a single blow from the female. The male on his back wrapped an arm around his throat, and he knew that he didn't have long. He focused all his remaining strength on the vampire beneath him. They were trying to pull him back, and the world was going dim. Dimly, he heard his brothers shouting at him to throw them off, to free himself.
Instead he let his limbs collapse, which brought his head just low enough. He couldn't breathe, couldn't see anything except blackness and flashes of light, and the only thing he felt was pain. But he clamped down his jaw, and when bitter stones filled his mouth and the screaming beneath him stopped, he knew he had crushed her skull. With the last of his consciousness, he gnawed at the thing beneath him and prayed that he had destroyed her skull to the point that it could not be reassembled, and he asked his brothers to tell Leah that he loved her.
Then everything went black.
X-x-x-x-X
A/N: Thanks once more to Babs81410. I also want to thank the person or people who nominated this story for a Non-Canon Award for Best Leah/Wolf Pairing. And I also want to remind everyone that I'm participating in Tricky Raven's Author/Artist Silent Auction, so if you're interested in supporting the website and would like a fanfic writer or artist create something for you, check it out! It closes April 26.