Chapter Twenty-Nine (Adam)
I could still hear Vladimir's voice in the back of my head telling me not to go after Giorgos.
It was such a bad idea. He was a pureblood. He was stronger. He was faster and older, more experienced. He'd managed to outsmart even Vladimir for the past several years and he'd taken over a terrorist organization in a matter of weeks. Even his own son was intimidated by him.
But the bastard had stepped into my territory now.
He tormented the love of my life and destroyed his family. He hunted them down like they were animals and he tore them apart. He killed the only woman I could call my mother. He wanted to experiment on creatures that only wanted to be left in peace. He forced me to lose my humanity and into a life of immortality and blood drinking.
There was no way in hell I was going to let this bastard get away with any of that.
I moved down the hallway as fast as I could, focusing on the sound of Giorgos' heart beat. It was a steady beat that only sped up when he moved. I could smell his blood in the air from where I'd managed to shoot him in the arm. He'd done something to wrap up his wound, though, and there were no blood spatters on the carpet to lead me to him. I could only rely on the supernatural instincts Julian's father had given me to find him, and maybe a little bit of my own.
I paused near a corner, listening to the sound of footsteps thudding heavily in my direction. I narrowed my eyes and held the gun tight in my hands as I watched a Zephyra member run past me. I held my breath and went silent as he continued on his way. He looked to be too much in a panic to care about me now. He was trying to find a way to escape...
Escape what?
I wrinkled my nose as I sniffed the air, the smell of blood growing stronger, but it wasn't just Giorgos' blood this time. I could smell the blood thickening in the air like pollution. I swung around into the next hallway, pausing at the sight of the darkness that hung at the end of the hallway, only a small sliver of light coming from a room down the hall.
I didn't hesitate and started down the hallway, holding the gun tight in my fist, finger hovering over the trigger as I drew nearer and nearer to the source of the blood. I slowed as I came in front of the room to peer inside and see a tarp over a window flapping in the wind, allowing sunlight to pour in across the room where Giorgos had pinned down one of his own men. I watched in disgust as Giorgos ripped the guy's throat open, no matter how much the guy squirmed and whimpered to escape him.
Giorgos fed on him heavily, practially bathing in the guy's blood. The guy wriggled for a little while longer before he finally gave up the fight and went limp in Giorgos' lap as Giorgos drank heavily from his throat. I narrowed my eyes and held up the gun, aiming it at Giorgos' head. Giorgos instantly looked up, making me wince at the sight of his red eyes glowing in the dimness of the room, reflecting the sunlight to make them look even redder. He bared his fangs and dropped his meal, rising to his feet slowly as he wiped his lips gently with the sleeve of his jacket.
"I didn't think you'd actually be stupid enough to run after me." He admitted, taking his time as he walked around the room. He was playing with me. The way he circled the room reminded me of a cat waiting to pounce, but he wasn't dealing with mouse here. I was a dog and I felt rabid with rage, but I managed to keep myself composed as I glared at him, gun following him the entire time.
"I wasn't running after you," I replied dryly, "You were running from me." Giorgos laughed at that, shoving his hands into the pockets of his trench coat, cocking his head at me.
"And why would I run from you? A petty halfblood. A Grey, no less. Did you know that? Now that you're part of the Grey Clan, you're nothing, but a doll to be put on display." He told me calmly, pausing to face me. I smirked at that.
"Thanks for the compliment, but trust me. I'm not a China Doll. I'm Chucky and I'm about to rip you to pieces." I answered dangerously, then fired the gun at him, but he dodged out of the way with a graceful spin before he came to face me again, closer this time. I kept the gun on him as he studied me, obviously impressed.
"Hm, what I wouldn't give to have a son like you," He commented, making me twitch in disgust at the thought, "Ollie's useless to me. He's more of a doll than you are. He just lays there and stares at nothing all day. He might as well be dead... And Orion? Please." He paused to curl his lip at the thought.
"He actually didn't want to come here today. He prefers his petty human to our cause. I don't get what it is about people like him, people like your Julian, who want humans so badly. What's so special about them anyway? A bunch of cattle wandering around aimlessly without purpose, without someone to herd them in the right direction. They spend all their time worrying about the most insignificant things. They aren't flawless either. Not like us." He explained, to which I couldn't stifle a laugh. I lowered the gun now, looking at him to see him staring at me intently, waiting for me to add something to my laughter, so I did.
"Flawless? There's no such thing as flawless," I replied matter-of-factly, "Everything has flaws and that's what makes them perfect. And humans are awesome, that's why your species keeps falling in love with us."
"Awesome," Giorgos echoed with a curious stare, "Your species is nothing. You are only food to us."
"To you maybe," I answered dryly, "But not to each other. Well, at least, not all the time. We're not as lame as you think. We can kick ass without super powers. You need enhancements to be powerful, we don't. We use raw power." Giorgos narrowed his eyes.
"Are you threatening me again?" He asked.
"I'm making you a promise," I answered, "That I'm going to kill you. Right here, right now. You destroyed everything. You ruined Julian's life and you killed his mother. You killed Vanessa, not Orion. He didn't want to do it in the first place. He was only carrying out daddy's orders. You're the one who wanted her dead and you tried to kill Kornelius too, but he made it out alive."
"I tried killing you too," Giorgos admitted, then curled his lip, "But Orion obviously didn't do a very good job."
"Oh no, he did," I assured flatly, "He ripped my chest open. He seemed pretty pleased to do it because he thought daddy would cut him some slack, but when he found out you were a selfish bitch, he changed his mind. But this isn't about you or your sons. It's about you what and about how you're going to pay for it all."
"And you think you can kill me." Giorgos stated.
"I don't think. I know. I made a promise. And that was to get rid of you and make everything all better for Julian."
"And you think killing me will make it all better," Giorgos sneered, "You think that once I'm gone, Zephyra will decide to end their rein and move on? There will be others, you know. Every culture had its rebels. We will never die."
"No," I admitted dryly, "But if I kill you, those others will know. They'll know that Zephyra was destroyed at our hands, mine and Julian's. They'll know and they won't come for us anymore. They won't have a reason to. If anything, they'll be too scared and they should be. You should be pissing yourself and begging for mercy right now, but it's okay, I understand you contain toxic amounts of stupidity." Giorgos' eyes flashed dangerously and he took a few steps toward me. I fired the gun and he just moved his head to the side to avoid it.
"You think a human invention like that will kill me?" He demanded.
"No, but it'll make you look stupider." I answered. Giorgos curled his lip, baring his fangs at me. I returned the gesture as he lunged at me. I spun out of his way and fired the gun at him, nicking him in the ear. He hissed and lunged at me again, this time catching my arm and trying to twist it and knock the gun away, but I jerked him close and slammed our heads together. Giorgos snarled and stumbled back, grasping at his forehead. I took a few steps back to put some space between us, but Giorgos closed it quickly by running at me again, fangs flashing dangerously.
I'd seen what he did to his own henchman. He was going to rip my throat open too, but I wasn't going to give him a chance. I put the gun up against my throat just as Giorgos went to bite down. He snarled, reeling back and holding his mouth in pain after having bit down on the gun. I smirked and fired the gun at him, catching him right in the chest. He gasped, stumbling back for a moment to clutch his chest. I fired again, but he managed to dodge this time.
He ran at me and caught me around the waist before I could react, though. I grunted as he threw me down on the floor. The gun skittered across the cement floor and flew toward the busted window with the tarp flying over it. I cursed and tried to shove Giorgos off me, but he grabbed me by the head and slammed it hard into the cement. A gasp left my lips as my vision twirled for a moment. Giorgos started to get off me to go for the gun, but I caught him by the neck and twisted us around so I had him in a headlock, squeezing as tight as I could. I started to twist his head with the intention of breaking his neck, but he brought his head back into my nose, effectively breaking it.
"Fuck no." I snarled as he went for the gun again. I got on his back before he could get up and bashed his head into the cement twice, a third time for extra measure. He was still for a split second before he caught me off guard and whirled around, throwing me across the room in the direction of the gun. I rolled and almost fell out the window, but managed to catch myself on the tarp. I snatched up the gun and went to whirl around and shoot Giorgos, but he shoved me with the intention of knocking me out the window. I cursed and caught a good grip on the tarp, swinging out for a second.
The floor left my feet and for a split second, I almost expected the tarp to rip and to fall to the ground where I would definitely break several bones that I would need if I wanted to kill this guy.
And then the tarp swung back and I was on the cement again. I caught Giorgos around the torso and threw him to the ground, struggling to shove the gun into his mouth so I could blow his brains out. He snarled at me, snapping his teeth at me angrily, eyes flashing red again. I snapped my fangs back at him, snarling threateningly in return.
"You're going to get yourself killed fighting me." He sneered, then shoved me away and rolled across the floor to get away from me. I shot to my feet and fired the gun at him, listening to the bullet ping off something as Giorgos dodged.
"Same to you." I returned. Giorgos narrowed his eyes.
"I'm giving you one last chance to leave."
"I'd say bite me, but I don't want rabies." I fired the gun again and Giorgos barely dodged, rolling across the floor and shooting to his feet again. I cursed, trying to fire again, but the gun was out of bullets. I threw it out the window to avoid another fight over it, then turned to Giorgos, who was stalking toward me. I backed up, clenching my fists and readying for another brawl when out of nowhere, Julian tackled him to the ground. My eyes widened in shock as Giorgos hit the ground with a grunt and rolled onto his back as Julian slugged him hard in the jaw.
"Get away from him, you bastard!" Julian snarled. Giorgos bared his fangs and went to grab Julian around the throat, but Julian leaned away and jammed his arm up into Giorgos' throat. Giorgos choked, then snarled and reached up to grab his arms in order to break them-- but Kipp suddenly came out of nowhere and caught him by the arms. A look of surprise came across Giorgos' face at having a human join us in the attack before he snarled in rage and went to bite at Kipp, but Kipp shocked me when he rammed his elbow into Giorgos' nose. Giorgos sputtered blood and a tooth, shock crossing his face as he looked up at Kipp, who glared down at him.
"You're fucking with the wrong kingdom, bitch." He stated, making Julian smirk before he glanced at me, worry etched into those pretty blue eyes of his.
"Adam, your nose--"
"It doesn't hurt, but don't let your guard down. He's dangerous." I added with a frown. Julian nodded and looked around quickly for a weapon, then scowled when he realized the room was empty, so he looked down at Giorgos with glowing eyes.
"I've waited a long time to rip your head off with my bare hands." He stated. Giorgos spat blood at his face, to which Julian scrunched up his nose in disgust.
"And I've waited a long time to see you scream in agony," He sneered, "Like the day your precious mother was killed." Julian paled at that and it gave Giorgos enough time to rip away from Kipp, knocking him back, and lunging for Julian's throat. Julian gasped and I lunged out, slamming into Giorgos and pinning him to the floor again. Julian scrambled for a second, running to help Kipp up before they stood nearby as I grabbed Giorgos around the throat tightly, sinking my nails into his throat, causing blood to gush past my fingers.
"Hurry," Julian managed, "The bomb--" Before he could finish, the building shuddered. Julian cursed as he hung onto Kipp to keep from falling.
"We need to go!" He shouted. I gritted my teeth, looking down at Giorgos, who was choking on his own blood, but raking his nails down my arms, causing them to bleed.
"I'm not leaving until he's dead!" I barked at him Julian, then squeezed as hard as I could. I felt his windpipe collapse beneath my hands as I pushed my full weight down on him. Giorgos glared up at me, red eyes flaring hatefully. I wanted to gauge his eyes out, but we were running out of time. The building was trembling and threatening to give up. The ceiling was already beginning to crumble and cracks were forming in the floor. Giorgos was still down, his throat in my hands, collapsed and bleeding.
I finally let go and stumbled back until Julian could wrap his arms around me tightly before pushing me toward the exit. Kipp was running ahead of us, throwing the door open and urging us to hurry up. I looked behind me one last time at Giorgos, who was choking and gagging as he struggled to get up. A chunk of the ceiling screeched and fell down between us, blocking my view and sending dirt and dust up into the air. I winced and ducked back, only to have Julian grab me by the arm and drag me out of the room, just barely avoiding another chunk of ceiling.
We sprinted out the door and down the hallway as fast as possible, avoiding falling pieces of ceiling and holes forming in the floor. I could feel the heat of a fire nearby, the sparks flying and wires coming loose from the ceiling and walls. We moved quickly down a small set of stairs and through a short hallway that was obscured by fallen rubble, but Kipp led us through another room and busted open a window for us to crawl through.
We stumbled into the muddy, nasty parking lot outside the building where three cars were sitting nearby. I was momentarily stunned to see Hunter's car sitting there with Peter sitting inside, staring out the window at us in relief. The other cars belonged to Peter and Vladimir. We managed to scramble into our cars, Kipp with Seth in Peter's car, while Julian and I climbed into the car with Kristophe, Claude, Vladimir, and Daimonas.
Claude was the one driving this time and he hit the gas so hard that the tires squealed on the muddy parking lot asphalt and he shot out of the parking lot ahead of Kipp and Hunter, who squealed after us right after we got ahead. I twisted to look out the window at the building behind us.
The entire building was crumbling. I saw a few Zephyra members scrambling to escape, but chunks of cement and other rubble came tumbling down, crushing them like ants. I just stared up at the window with the flapping tarp, waiting to see Giorgos at least jump out the window to avoid getting crushed, but it never happened.
The first top floors collapsed on top of each other, crushing the windows and falling off the side while the rest of the building just looked like some kind of Jenga game. I saw a few Zephyra members escape, but they were limping and huddled together, all severely wounded. The rest were completely flattened or burnt to death from the fires that popped and exploded everywhere.
"I suppose the bomb was bigger than we expected." Vladimir said at last, making me turn around in my seat. I glanced at him, but he remained silent as he used a tissue to wipe blood off the side of his face. He handed it to Daimonas, who looked startled at the offer, but timidly shook his head now and just sat with his knees drawn tightly to his chest. I frowned, tilting my head curiously at him, before looking at Julian, who was still staring behind us at the building with wide eyes.
I reached up and covered his eyes, making him turn his head to look at me. I could see the question in his eyes, asking me if this was the end or not. I couldn't be sure.
What Giorgos had said was right.
This wasn't really over. It was the end of Giorgos and the end of Zephyra, but there would always, always be someone else out there to ruin the peace. Be it little groups of ex-Zephyra members or a new group rising from the depths to take over what Vladimir had built, there was always going to be people out there who wanted to destroy the peace.
But I didn't tell Julian that. I just let him turn in his seat and lean against me with a heavy sigh, his eyes closing slowly to rest. I put my arm around him to hold him close to me. I looked up to see Vladimir glancing out the corner of his eye with a mysterious stare at Daimonas, who, for once, didn't speak at all. He just stared at the floor and hugged his legs to his chest, Vladimir's coat engulfing his small body.
"We're going to the hospital," Vladimir said after a while, making me look up, "Seth still needs to see a doctor. He was already severely wounded before he was kidnapped. He's going to need a lot of medical attention. We'll need to figure out what we're going to do with Anoki as well. He'll be unconscious for a week. We have a lot of paperwork to do now that Giorgos and Zephyra is destroyed."
"Are they?" Julian asked nervously, resting his hand on my thigh. I reached over and laced my fingers together with his, glancing at Vladimir, who said nothing and just stared at me.
"Yeah," I told Julian, even though my tongue felt like lead while I lied to him, "It's over, Julian... I promise." Julian instantly relaxed at that, like he always did, because he believed me. He trusted me. And this was the first time I had lied to him.
While Zephyra may have been torn apart, there were still others.
And whether we'd have to deal with them or not, I wasn't sure, but I wouldn't put it past them to bring themselves to us again.
The rest of the ride was complete and utter silence.