The Lair

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Mel

Sebastian drives through the night; I’m huddled in the back, feeling sleepy and lethargic. There’s fear. Confusion. Anger. But somehow it’s all buried beneath heavy doses of sated contentment. That too-full sleepiness that hits sometime between the pumpkin pie and the final touchdown of the Cotton Bowl. This is how those snakes in the Amazon must feel after eating an entire wild boar.

I’m starting to perk up by the time he pulls the car over on the outskirts of San Angelo. We’re parked in a neighborhood as quiet and desolate as my mind. He’s gone maybe twenty minutes then comes back with a bucket of warm water, a bar of soap, and fresh clothes. Only then do I realize that the shreds of clothes I have on are still covered in blood. And my skin is still sticky with it. All my icy scrubbing accomplished nothing. I am sure I will never feel clean again, but the warm water and soap go a long way. In the new clothes I feel almost human again. Then I inhale and the scent of whoever last wore the clothes hits me. It’s faint but delicious. Maybe I will never feel human again after all.

Maybe that’s what Sebastian was trying to teach me.

He returns again, this time with a new car and map with the route all marked out. He hands me the keys.

I don’t bother to ask if he’s coming, too. We both know he can’t. I can see the tension already. We must be in Roberto’s territory. Sebastian is twitchy with the need to move on. Somewhere out there, is Roberto twitchy, too? Does he know how close his enemy is? Does he sense that death is stalking him?

“I’ve never driven alone before,” I admit as I take the keys.

“You’re a smart girl, Kit. You’ll figure it out.” He unfolds the map and spreads it out on the hood of the car. Only then do I notice that he’s hand drawn a few more roads as well as several buildings. Just rough squares where buildings must be on Roberto’s compound. He traces a road on the map with his finger. “You’ll come in from the northwest. The guard station is here.”

Of course Roberto would have a guard station. And fences. Lots of them, just like on the Farms. But instead of untrained Collabs armed with tranq rifles, Roberto’s compound would be guarded by elite ex–special forces—the best of the best.

It had taken every scrap of will and planning and bravery I had to plan our escape from the Farm and its security was a joke compared to this. “How am I supposed to break in?”

“You don’t.” Sebastian taps his finger on the box he’s drawn for the guardhouse. “You drive up to the front gate. You knock.”

“And then just drive on in?”

Sebastian pauses and I sense that he’s trying to decide what to say. “Look, Kitten, you know what you have to do once you get there, right?”

“Right.” Save Lily. Kill Bob. It was simple.

“Don’t forget: a mere stake to the heart won’t do it. It will slow him down, maybe even long enough for you to finish him, but to guarantee he’s dead you need to chop off his head.”

“I know,” I growl. “I’ve been killing Ticks too, you know.”

“If killing Ticks alone was enough to prepare you for this, then anyone could do this.” He gives my chin a simple nudge. “No, Kit, only you can do this. Only you are fast enough and strong enough to bring down the most powerful vampire in the world.”

I feel a strange burst of pride that he’s trusting me with this task. But doubt as well. “What if I choke?”

“You won’t. You have the killer instinct.”

And somehow it seemed even simpler, more cut-and-dry, maybe, now that my head had cleared. Now that I’d fed and the ragged edge of my hunger was worn down. Was that why Sebastian had made me eat? Was that why he forced me to face the most awful parts of myself? Because once I’d killed a helpless human girl, then I’d have the strength to kill a monster? Or was it something else? Maybe he thought that once I’d experienced firsthand how monstrous we vampires were, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill one.

Whatever his motives had been, the result was the same. I will kill Roberto. I will not hesitate to destroy him. Destroying him means saving my sister. It’s what she would do for me.

I looked up at Sebastian. “I’ll kill Roberto.”

“Right.”

“Will no one stop me?”

Sebastian chuckled. “Melly my dear, everyone will try. He has at least two hundred head of kine in his herd, plus at least fifty soldiers in his employ. You’ll have to be careful because once you’re in, you’ll need to assume every move you make is being watched and listened to. If they know what you’re up to, they’ll kill you. And Lily and Carter as well. The only advantage you have is that I can help get you in. I know some people in Roberto’s herd. I’m going to call and tell them you’re on your way. Carter and Lily will probably get there first. I can almost guarantee they’ll let all of you right in.”

“Why?”

“Because they’ve been looking for you for months.”

Of course they had. The Dean of our Farm hadn’t wanted to let us go when we’d escaped. He’d figured out that one of us was an abductura and he’d hunted us down, chasing us over half the country. I guess it made sense that he’d told someone else about us before he’d died. “Because he thinks I’m an abductura?”

“Because you are extremely valuable and always have been.”