Page 77 of The Mech Who Loved Me
Malloryn's head tilted sharply. His face paled. "I can hear her. She's in there." Kincaid shoved past him, and the duke caught him at the gate to a small Georgiantownhouse.
"Have you got your pistol?" hedemanded.
"Do I need it?" Kincaidreplied.
"I don't know." Malloryn pushed on ahead of him, snapping the tracking device shut. "But I can hear Ava screaming. Be ready foranything."
* * *
The oddest thoughtskept running through Ava's head as she tried to still her panic. CV levels: 23 percent. And seven minutes of paralysis... possibly more. Seven and a half? Ava groggily forced herself to count. Curse her confounded desire to not drink blood. If she had, then perhaps her CV levels would be higher, and she might have begun to pull out of thisalready.
As it was, 23 percent CV levels meant at least eight minutes’ worth of paralysis via hemlock, she deduced, as the stranger used his shoulder to push through a door into a small house, and what was clearly a kitchen. Every blue blood reacted to hemlock differently, depending upon how far gone they were with the craving and what their CVlevelswere.
A teakettle hissed on the stove, and sirens wailed in the distance. Ava was nothing but a passenger, a witness in her own body, unable to control a single thing about her destiny. The last time she'd felt like this was when Haguekidnappedher.
"Bloody thing," thedhampirmuttered, wincing at the kettle's high-pitched whistle, and then looking up as the stairs creaked beneath the weight ofsomeone.
Don't come down, Ava wanted to scream, but nothing was working, least of all her throat muscles. She could barely evenbreathe.
"Aye, aye," a woman's voice called down the stairs, "I'll put the bloody cat out, you old fool. It's theleast—"
The woman's voice cut off. Ava couldn't see what happened, but she heardthegasp.
"Here now! What are you doing in here? What have you done to thatpoorgirl—"
Thedhampirsmoothly drew his pistol and it retorted with asharpbark.
No!A choked noise came from Ava's throat. His body had turned just enough for her to see the little old lady go down like a puppet with its strings cut, tumbling down the last three steps, and Ava's fingerstwitched.
"Shit," thedhampirmuttered, slinging Ava into a chair and propping her there, before he crossed to the corpse and scraped a hand over his mouth. "Shit,shit,shit."
"Geraldine?" a man's voice called from upstairs. "What happened? I thought I heard a bump? Did that blasted cat tripyouup?"
Nineminutes.
She was starting to come round. She could feel her feet at least. Ava flopped and wiggled, throwing her body to the side as much as possible. The chair tipped on two legs... then went over with a bang, sending her sprawling onto the floor where she hit her head and splitherlip.
She ignored the pain.Please, please let the old man haveheardme....
Thedhampirtook the stairs two at a time, his pistol held against his thigh. No.No!An almost moan came fromherlips.
"Herenow—"
Three gunshot retorts echoed and Ava gasped hopelessly as something heavy hit the floorabove.
She had to get outofhere.
Thedhampirseemed unlike the Zero they'd all spoken of last month. "Zero moved almost faster than I could see," Kincaid had muttered when Ava fixed uphisnose.
"Took down Byrnes, and he's good," Ingrid hadadded.
This fellow seemed young and inexperienced. Maybe he was freshly made? A new agent of the faceless enemy that worked against them. Maybe she couldusethat.
A cat hissed somewhere in the house, and more gunfire echoed. There was a furious animal snarl, and then a curse. Something smashed. The cat hissedagain.
Come on. Ava swallowed, trying to make her fingers move again. The paralysis finally seemed to be wearing off, and there was a rush of heat through her veins as if the craving virus fought off the hemlock within her. She could smell blood. Geraldine's. The sudden surge of interest from the darker side of her locked on it, and Ava instinctively quashed it down, before realizing the craving could help her. In a heightened state of bloodlust, a blue blood was stronger, faster, even moredeadly.
Possibly able to quell the hemlock in her veinsfaster.
