“No matter how badly you will want to,” Mencheres stressed. “Despite his many flaws, he is dear to me, and it would pain me to lose him.”
My curiosity was piqued. If this person wasn’t a threat to us, why was Mencheres so sure that Vlad would want to kill him?
“Aside from my conditions, yes,” Vlad said, the annoyance in his tone emphasizing that he didn’t appreciate repeating himself. “Now, who is he?”
Mencheres gave Vlad a look of grim amusement. “Oh, you know him. And you dislike him even more than Bones.”
Chapter 6
We landed in Cheshire, England, which thankfully was only a short flight from London. A chauffeur was already waiting for us, and the unfamiliar driver whisked us away to a manor that looked right out of the show Downton Abbey. The driver dropped us off and then sped away, leaving us in front of the manor’s large double doors.
They opened before Mencheres could knock, revealing a startlingly handsome vampire with vivid turquoise eyes and shoulder-length, auburn hair. I had time to notice particulars about his face and hair because after one glance, I kept my gaze firmly directed upward. Vlad muttered a curse even as the naked vampire let out an aggravated huff.
“You said it was urgent, Mencheres, so do come in.”
“Ian,” Mencheres said in a chiding tone. “You should have at least gotten dressed.”
Ian glanced down, as if just now realizing that the only thing he wore was a very intimately placed silver piercing.
“Do you see a seven-foot-tall woman on my face?” he asked in a conversational tone. “No, because I stopped what I was doing and emptied out my house as you requested, so the least you could do is not scold me for failing to put on a tux.”
I was so startled by the graphic description, I didn’t know how to react. Nice to meet you didn’t seem applicable. Sorry to interrupt your cunnilingus! was probably more appropriate, yet I wasn’t about to say that, either.
“Ah, but who’s this?” Ian went on, angling his head around Vlad to get a better look at me. “Mmmm, isn’t she stunning? If she’s my consolation prize, then I accept—”
“She’s my wife,” Vlad growled before I could correct the misassumption. “And if your cock twitches one more time while you look at her, I’ll burn it off.”
“Vlad, you swore,” Mencheres said low.
“Castration won’t kill him,” Vlad responded at once. “His life was all I promised, and his extremities can grow back.”
Instead of being concerned, Ian laughed. “Here I thought today was going to be boring. Now, I simply must know what’s brought the infamous Impaler to my door, especially if it’s so important, my sire made you swear an oath not to kill me.”
His sire. I cast a surprised look at Mencheres. Ian didn’t seem like the type that the reserved vampire would choose for a member of his line. And what had Ian been thinking, putting silver there? He might not even notice if Vlad burned his cock off. It had to be burning like hell right now.
“Are you quite sure you don’t know anyone else?” Vlad said to Mencheres, not moving to enter the house.
“Few vampires are foolish enough to risk the Law Guardians’ wrath by practicing magic, and fewer still are alive after such reckless disobedience,” Mencheres replied. Ian shrugged, not disputing either charge. “Out of those, Ian is the only one I trust . . . after I secure his word, that is.”
“Mencheres, you wound me,” Ian said, sounding hurt.
“Do not trifle with me.” Mencheres’s new tone startled me. I had never heard him raise his voice before. “Just as I know Vlad, I know you. You would misdirect Vlad for your own amusement, let alone if someone offered you financial incentive. That is why you will promise to show Vlad and his wife the same loyalty you would show to me, and you will swear it on the love you have for me.”
Ian’s mouth curled in what could only be called a pout. “That’s not fair.”
“Swear it,” Mencheres insisted. “And before you argue any further, when was the last time I asked you for a favor? Would you truly deny me now?”
“No,” Ian said, sounding as if the word soured in his throat. “You are one of only four people that I would never deny. Very well, I swear on my love for you that I will show Tepesh and his wife the same loyalty I’d show you during the duration of whatever task you’re about to talk me into.”
A vow with conditions, but then Vlad had had conditions, too. Besides, if we were successful, we wouldn’t need Ian’s loyalty after we broke the spell that bound me to Mircea.
Mencheres turned to Vlad. “See?” he said in his usual calm manner. “Now that that’s been settled, we can proceed.”
Vlad eyed Mencheres in a way that made me wonder if he was about to take my arm, turn around, and leave. Yet finally he shrugged, as if to say, So be it.
“My vow is void if you betray me or Leila,” Vlad said to Ian, flashing him his most charming smile. “And in that case, death will be a kindness compared to what I’ll do to you.”
Ian rolled his eyes. “Save your threats. Thanks to the promise Mencheres forced from me, you don’t need them. Now, what sort of magical trouble are you intending to get into? It must be more than casting a simple spell or Mencheres would’ve done it himself. Before magic became outlawed, he was one of the best practitioners around.”
“It does involve a spell, but we don’t want to cast one,” Vlad said. “We need to break one. To do that, we’ll need access to master sorcerers of even greater skill than Mencheres.”
Ian cast an annoyed look at his sire. “If you wanted to kill me, you could’ve picked a nicer way to do it.”
“This is important, Ian,” Mencheres said quietly.
“Why?” Ian asked, turning to Vlad now. “Getting tired of offing your enemies the fiery way?”
I answered before Vlad could. “I’m spellbound to a necromancer who’s being held hostage by people who want him dead. If he dies, our link means that I die, too, so finding someone more powerful to break that link is our only option.”
Ian looked at me. Not the perverted way he had the first time, but coldly, as if he could care less whether I dropped dead at his feet right that second. Then he looked at Mencheres. In quick succession, affection, resignation, and irritation skipped over his features. I didn’t know what to make of that mishmash, or of Ian’s admitted tendency to backstab for profit or amusement, but Mencheres must trust that he’d hold to his word or we wouldn’t be here. Because of that, we had no choice except to trust Ian, too. For now.
Finally, Ian’s expression settled into cheerful cockiness. When he flashed a smile that turned up the volume on his already dazzling looks, I actually felt an instinctive feminine flutter that I instantly squashed.
“Who wants to live forever anyway?” Ian said. “Right, then, we’ll start with a magic speakeasy in the heart of London. And I do hope that you’re as tough as Tepesh is, my lovely raven-haired poppet, because this will get dicey.”
Chapter 7
By “heart of London” Ian meant the seedy section, judging from the derelict alleys we walked through. If we didn’t have the vampiric ability to hypnotize anyone who approached us with nefarious intentions, we would have been mugged twice by now. As it was, the would-be muggers were the ones who lost something. I still wasn’t skilled at biting someone’s neck without causing harm, but I could handle a wrist. Vlad had been hungry, too. Ian wasn’t, saying he’d eaten earlier.
Considering Ian’s description of what we’d interrupted, I wasn’t about to ask him to elaborate. At least Ian had finally put on some clothes, although his shirt was all the way open and his jeans were so tight, the black denim looked painted on.
Mencheres hadn’t joined us, so it was just the three of us striding through the smelly, graffiti-ridden alleys. I would have liked Mencheres to come along, but he’d said it was best that he stay away since he had many enemies in the magical world due to his former wife. Vlad and Ian had nodded as if they knew the story behin
d that statement. I didn’t and I was curious, but it would have to wait until later. First, we had to find the speakeasy, and after half an hour of walking, I was beginning to wonder if Ian was too cocky to admit that he was lost.
Finally, Ian sauntered up to what I assumed was a bar only since I couldn’t imagine any other industry surviving in this area. I didn’t catch the name because only one letter in the neon sign remained. From the repeated crunching under our feet as we crossed the bar’s threshold, I wondered if the broken glass from those other letters had ever been swept up.
The interior wasn’t any nicer. Empty tables with rickety chairs took up half the space, and a bar that had the distinct scent of urine emanating from it occupied the other half. The bartender looked up from his conversation with the business’s only two customers, and from the baleful looks the three of them gave us, they weren’t happy to have new company.
Then the barkeep’s face really darkened as Ian vaulted over the bar. He went over to a large, ancient-looking freezer that was shoved against the bar’s far corner. Ian opened the freezer door, and as expected, it was empty except for layers of dust.
Ian pulled on something I couldn’t see, and the back of the industrial-sized freezer fell away, revealing a small, spotless room. Ian ducked into that room, ignoring the bartender’s continued protestations, then poked his head out.
“Are you coming or not?” he asked us.
Vlad jumped over the counter, one single glare causing the bartender to shut up and back away. I followed suit, and soon the three of us were all jostling for space in the small room. When Ian pressed a button and we abruptly began to descend, I realized it wasn’t a room at all. It was an elevator.
After going down about thirty feet, it came to a halt. The elevator had no doors, so our new accommodations were immediately revealed to us, and I looked around in amazement.
Cigar smoke and incense caused a faint haze over an area that was as luxurious as the bar had been derelict. Velvet couches and chairs were arranged around gaming tables, a tuxedoed band played jazz, and from what I could see behind its many occupants, the sprawling bar looked to be made entirely of huge, different-colored prisms of crystal.
But that wasn’t what made me stare. The voluptuous blackjack dealer with the deck of cards floating well over her head had been the first thing to catch my eyes, quickly eclipsed by the bottles behind the crystal bar. There was no bartender, and bottles came off the shelves by themselves, either pouring their contents directly into patrons’ glasses or blending them with juices, sodas, and other mixers first.
As I watched, a champagne bottle uncorked itself, expertly avoiding the usual bubbly runoff. Then it poured its gold-colored contents into a floating glass that, once full, whisked itself over to a gorgeous woman who took it without once glancing up from her companion.
“Welcome to Selenites,” Ian said, with a cynical smirk. “London’s premier location for magically inclined elites.”
“Is all that magic, or is some of it telekinesis?” I whispered. Mencheres could do everything I was witnessing. Maybe Selenites had another vampire with telekinesis here.
Ian grunted. “Magic. Doubtless we’re the only vampires here. Most would rather not be executed by the Law Guardians, and they would be, if word got out they were dabbling in magic.”
“But you used to come here,” I said. “Why?” Vlad and I certainly wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have to. Why would Ian willingly risk a death sentence just to hang out in this place?
Ian clucked his tongue at me. “None of that, poppet. Sharing my secrets isn’t part of our agreement.”
Vlad didn’t seem to care why Ian had been a regular here, nor did he share my appreciation for the magical displays around us. His gaze swept the room in a calculated manner.
“Enough talk. We’re here to speak with a true sorcerer, not waste time with pretenders playing tricks with floating cards and bottles.”
He hadn’t lowered his voice, so this caused more than a few heads to turn in our direction. Ian elbowed Vlad, hissing, “You can’t bully your way into results here. Follow my lead, and for pity’s sake, don’t kill anyone.”
Vlad stared at the elbow that was still prodding him in the ribs. Then he flashed a grin at Ian that alarmed me into throwing my arms around Vlad.
“Priorities, remember?” I whispered close to his ear.
I could feel it when his sudden spike of power drew down to nondangerous levels, and when Vlad pressed a kiss to my cheek, I knew that Ian was out of the woods. For now.
“Yes, priorities,” Vlad agreed in a light tone. Then to Ian, he said, “Touch me again, and I’ll feed your limbs to a pack of wolves.”
Ian shook his head. “Can’t even pretend to be marginally sane, can you? Fine, have it your way. Gents and gentlewomen,” he said in a louder tone. “My friends and I seek the finest, most skilled entertainment tonight. If you’re interested and can meet our expectations, we promise you an evening that you and your bank account will never forget.”
If we’d piqued some people’s interest before, we had all of theirs now. Years of performing on the carnival circuit had me smiling as if I was completely comfortable at suddenly being the center of attention. To be honest, it felt more unsettling not to have people instinctively wince when they first looked at me. Most days, I forgot that I no longer had a jagged scar running from my temple all the way to my right hand.
After several moments, a couple stepped out from the onlookers. The woman appeared to be in her forties, and her air of jaded sensuality hinted that she’d done it all twice and was looking for someone to tempt her into round three. Add that to striking features, curly brown hair, a dancer’s build, and you had a woman who was used to being admired.
She was also human, so I didn’t understand why Ian tensed when she approached. Then I wondered if I’d imagined that when he strode over and gave her a lingering, openmouthed kiss.
“Elena,” Ian said once he’d let her up for air. “I hoped you’d be here tonight. And Klaus, mate, it’s been too long.”
Ian then kissed him with the same amount of tongue. When he was finished, Klaus gave him a light smack on the cheek.
“You know you’re not supposed to come back here.”
“Didn’t the two of you miss me?” Ian asked, sounding hurt.
Elena let out a ladylike snort. “Parts of me did, but the rest of me was too busy smarting over how you swindled me.”
“You said not to come back until I was ready to pay you back triple, and I am,” Ian countered. “Let me introduce you to my friends. Among other things, they’re the money.”
“Are they?” she drew out, coming over and extending her hand to Vlad. “Charmed, I’m sure.”
Despite Vlad’s hatred of being touched, he took Elena’s hand with a smile she wouldn’t have understood. I did, and almost pitied her. Vlad could burn objects without tactile contact first, but to burn people, he had to touch them first. Now, Elena was as good as kindling to him.
So was Klaus, after Vlad shook her handsome, dark-haired companion’s hand next. I was wearing my current-repelling gloves, so I shook hands with them as well.
Elena barely glanced at me. Instead, she looked Vlad up and down while moistening her lips. I bristled in instinctive possessiveness, though to be fair, I couldn’t blame her. Vlad’s elegant outer coat was charcoal and his tailored pants were a lighter ash color, but his silk shirt was a subtly gleaming shade of silver. Instead of coming across as bland, Vlad looked as if he’d summoned every color of smoke, formed it into the richest material, then layered it over his muscular body. When you paired that with those piercing, coppery-green eyes, no wonder Elena seemed unable to look away.
Klaus also eyed Vlad with interest, although unlike Elena, he exuded more than a hint of wariness as well. “You look familiar. What did you say your name was?”
“I didn’t,” Vlad replied, his tone icily pleasant.
Elena stiffened and Klaus blan
ched. Ian rolled his eyes, stepping in front of Vlad. “Don’t mind him, he’s always cranky before he gets his knob rubbed. Now, while I know that both of you are magically delectable, my friends will need a demonstration before they commit themselves for the evening.”
My brows shot into my hairline. Finding someone skilled in magic was important, but we hadn’t agreed to this!
Vlad must have felt the same way. He shoved Ian aside with a muttered, “Enough of this.” Then his gaze changed to glowing green as he glared at Elena and Klaus, then the rest of the room.
“All I see are cheap tricks, but if any of you socialites or sycophants are true practitioners, I have a job for you.”
Elena’s face flushed an angry shade of red. “How dare you insult me and my establishment! Your arrogance is why your kind is rarely welcomed here, vampire.”
“Vampire?” Klaus repeated. Then his gaze widened and he stared at Vlad with horrified recognition. “Now I know where I’ve seen you! You’re Vl—!”
That’s all he got out before his head exploded right off his shoulders, coating Elena in flaming spatters of goo.
“And here we go,” Ian said resignedly.
Chapter 8
Elena screamed and lunged at Vlad, who threw her aside hard enough to snap several bones. A collective gasp rose from the crowd, then all of them charged us en masse.
For a second, I just watched in amazement. Ian had said they were human, and from the heartbeats I heard, he was right. They might be magically inclined humans, but none of them seemed to have true powers, so what did they think they were going to do? Stun us into unconsciousness with their card tricks?
That’s why I didn’t take off my current-repelling gloves when several of them jumped me. The voltage from my right hand could kill them. As it was, all I had to do was wait until the electricity zapped into them as they came into close contact with my body. Then my attackers thinned when Vlad started flinging them away, some hitting the ceiling.
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