Dark Seduction: A Vampire Romance (Vampire Royals of New York Book 2)

by Sarah Piper

  Vampire, her intuition whispered. He’s trying to compel you, girl.

  “Everything is fine,” the man said. “You’re going to calm down, and you’re going to answer our questions.”

  Charley forced herself to relax beneath his touch. She knew, thanks to Dorian, she couldn’t be compelled. He’d said it was one of her many mysteries.

  Right now, trapped in a limo with her demonic uncle and his crazy vampire sidekick, it was also her only advantage.

  “I saw my uncle Rudy,” she said, keeping her voice calm and steady. She looked at him with wide, dreamy eyes, willing her heart rate to slow down.

  Answers, she told herself. They only want answers.

  “Who is Dorian Redthorne?” the man asked her.

  “He’s our mark,” she said evenly. “The CEO of FierceConnect. Owner of Ravenswood Manor in Annandale-on-Hudson.”

  “Is Dorian aware of your uncle’s plans?”

  “No. He thinks I’m in love with him. He’s taking me to Hawaii. The heist can proceed as planned.”

  “Ask her about the sculpture,” Rudy said, seemingly satisfied with her bullshit answers. “Ask her why it wasn’t on the list.”

  Charley’s chest tightened. A sculpture not on the list?

  Had they found out she’d lied about the Hermes?

  “Have you ever seen a sculpture at Ravenswood called Mother of Lost Souls?” the vampire asked. “It’s a fertility goddess statue.”

  Charley wanted to cry with relief. At last—a question she didn’t have to lie about. “I’m familiar with the piece, but I’ve never seen it there, and Dorian has never mentioned it.”

  “Fuck.” Rudy tensed beside her. “Ask her again, Silas.”

  Silas. Charley made a mental note of the name. She wondered if he was from House Duchanes, or some other despicable family Dorian would be burning to the ground later.

  Dorian. Where was he? He should’ve been done with those other vamps by now.

  A new worry worked its way into her chest, but Charley pushed it aside, forcing herself to stay focused. She couldn’t lose her shit now. She needed these assholes to believe they had the upper hand.

  The vampire tightened his grip on her shoulders. “Think very carefully, Charlotte. Mother of Lost Souls. It’s a statue of a pregnant woman with the head of a demon.”

  Charley shook her head. “It’s not there. Like I said, I know the piece. I would’ve remembered seeing it.”

  Finally, the asshole released her.

  Charley wasn’t sure how long compulsion was supposed to last, so as she turned back toward her uncle, she did her best to appear a little dazed.

  “Rudy?” she asked, blinking fast. “What’s… Why are you here? Little late for a cappuccino, don’t you think?”

  Rudy laughed, his whole body shaking with exaggerated effort. Metal glinted in his hands.

  That fucking gun.

  This time, Charley was pretty sure it was loaded.

  She swallowed hard, and her uncle—the demon—grinned.

  As if the vampire weren’t enough of a threat, the dickless demon needed a gun too. Charley didn’t know a lot about demonic powers, but she was pretty sure they didn’t need guns to defend themselves.

  Which meant Rudy was either torturing her for fun… or he was the demonic equivalent of impotent.

  “Do… do you know where my sister is?” she asked, trying to sound properly cowed. “I was supposed to meet her here, but she didn’t show.”

  Rudy narrowed his eyes, laughter and malice dancing behind his gaze, but he didn’t respond.

  She’d never wished so hard for his death.

  Seconds ticked by like hours.

  Finally, he frowned and said, “Do you know the most heartbreaking thing about the One Night Stand job?”

  The One Night Stand job? Now he was bringing that up?

  Charley shuddered. Whatever her cruel fate tonight, she wished Rudy would get to the point, not drag her down memory lane.

  For months after her father’s death, she’d wanted nothing more than to talk about this, but Rudy forbade it. Now, five years later, she was no longer interested in his thoughts—not unless he was ready to confess to murdering her father.

  “No,” she said. “But I really need to find Sasha, so…” She turned to reach for the door handle, but the vampire beside her wouldn’t budge.

  “It was supposed to be his last job,” Rudy continued. “None of us wanted that—he was far too talented a thief for an early retirement. But there was his precious little girl to consider, wasn’t there?” Rudy reached for her face, but Charley flinched away. “He wanted you to have a normal life.”

  Rudy was probably lying, but even so, the idea filled her with regret.

  Had her father really intended to leave the game?

  “After the job,” Rudy said, “he was planning to take his share and get you out of the country. Start over somewhere new. Of course, I had no idea he was planning to double-cross us. In the end, I suppose it didn’t turn out well for either of you.”

  “Please,” Charley said, keeping her tone meek. Rudy needed to believe he had a lot more power over her than he did—that she’d never do anything to betray him. Every second that passed was another second Sasha—and now possibly Dorian—was in more danger. She needed to get the fuck out of there. “I… I need to leave. I’m supposed to meet my sister.”

  “Sorry,” Silas said. “She can’t make it tonight.”

  Without thinking, Charley swung at him, but he dodged her easily. In a blur, he dragged her across the small space to the bench seat that faced them and shoved her up against the door, pressing his forearm across her throat.

  “I say we end this bitch right here,” Silas said.

  “Easy, Silas,” Rudy warned. “She’s not ours to end. Remember?”

  Not theirs to end? What the fuck does that mean?

  Charley struggled against the vampire’s impossible hold. Silas removed his arm from her throat, but as soon as she sucked in her next breath, he hit her again, shoving her face into the window. “Sasha’s tied up at the moment. Sorry you didn’t get the message.”

  Charley tasted blood. She forced herself to take a deep breath.

  Stay focused. He’s lying. Play it cool, and eventually Rudy will tire of the games and let you go. Sasha is fine. She’s fine. And so is Dorian. And Aiden and Cole. Everyone is fucking fine…

  Silas finally backed off.

  “Do you know what they say about apples falling from trees, Charlotte?” Rudy asked.

  Charley nodded, unable to take her eyes off the gun, the glint of it in the moonlight.

  “It’s just that I worry,” he said. “What if you have the same plans for Sasha, whisking her off into the sunset and betraying us in the process?”

  Charley’s mouth hurt to form words, her lip split and bleeding, but she forced herself to speak. “Sasha doesn’t even know about this. She has a life here. School, work, friends. I wouldn’t take her away from—”

  “Still, I don’t think I’d be where I am today if I didn’t consider all of the possibilities and take the necessary…” He raised the gun, aiming it at her head. “…precautions.”

  “Please, Rudy,” she whispered, fear leaking into her voice. “Where’s my sister? Is she in trouble?”

  Silas laughed.

  “Trouble?” Rudy asked. The ice in his tone chilled Charley to the core. “I suppose that depends on you, Charlotte.”

  Rudy nodded at Silas, who pulled a cell phone from his shirt pocket.

  A cell phone with a pink-and-white striped cover that most certainly did not belong to the vampire goon.

  He thumbed over the screen and read, in a high and mocking voice, “Come alone no matter what, Charlotte!”

  Charley’s whole body went limp, her heart sputtering to a stop.

  They had Sasha’s phone.

  They had Sasha.

  A demon and a vampire, and who knew what other monsters… They’
d taken her sister.

  Charley stuck a fist in her mouth, biting down to keep from vomiting. Tears stung her eyes, but she didn’t feel the pain in her hand, even when she drew blood.

  “She’ll be well taken care of.” Rudy finally lowered his gun. “Three meals a day, a shower, some books to keep her occupied. As long as you cooperate, and our Ravenswood job goes off without a hitch, you’ll be reunited soon enough.”

  The interior of the limo spun before Charley’s eyes. The whole world was tipping on its side, leaving her scrambling for purchase on a slippery slope, nothing beneath her but a bottomless pit.

  “Don’t… don’t kill her, Rudy,” she whispered. “She’s just a kid.”

  “Kill her? Aww.” Rudy’s voice was mocking, his eyes dancing with pure hatred. Reaching across to pat Charley’s knee, he said, “I suppose we could kill her, but I don’t think you’ll let it come to that, will you?”

  “What… what do you want?” Charley’s voice was trembling and weak, but at that point, she didn’t care. She wasn’t acting. She wasn’t manipulating them. This was real. Rudy had taken Sasha, and Charley would do whatever it took to get her back.

  “Simple,” Rudy said. “As long as the job goes off as expected, and we recover all the artwork we’re looking for, I will personally deliver Sasha to your door the following weekend.”

  Charley swallowed her panic. “Rudy, please. Please! She’s still just a kid. You can’t keep her hostage and—”

  “Relax, Charlotte. Enjoy your time in Hawaii with your billionaire boyfriend. When you and your sister are reunited, you can swap vacation stories.”

  “But I—”

  Rudy cut her off with the wave of his hand, a signal that Silas interpreted as permission to hit her again. He shoved her against the window, fingers digging hard into her shoulder.

  Charley was hot and dizzy, sweat trickling down her back, her mouth filling with the salt-and-copper taste of more blood.

  “No more questions,” Rudy said. “No more talking. We all have roles to play, just like your father had a role to play. Just like Dorian Redthorne has a role to play. Even Sasha. I suggest you learn yours, Charlotte.”

  Rudy nodded at Silas.

  “Time for a nap, bitch,” the vampire said, wrapping an arm around her midsection like a vise. He opened the door and hauled her out into the alley.

  “I’ll be sure to give Sasha a goodnight kiss for you,” Rudy called out, then closed the door. The limo didn’t peel out of the alley—not like she expected it to. It simply rolled away, taillights glowing like vampire eyes as it drove off into the night.

  Without warning, Silas grabbed her and blurred. When the world finally came back into focus, she was in a different alley, dark and unfamiliar and terrifying.

  Before she could ask what the hell was going on, Silas lifted her over his head and threw her down into a dumpster. There wasn’t much trash inside to cushion the blow, and she hit the bottom hard, the impact sending a sharp, lancing pain all the way up her arms and into her shoulders. Broken glass sliced her palms. Pinpricks of light swam before her eyes.

  “Goodnight, bitch.” Silas slammed the metal lid closed.

  She hoped he was fucking gone.

  She tried to sit up, but the world was spinning again, the darkness creeping in, blackening the edges of her vision.

  In the distance, she heard another street-sweeper, a police siren, a group of drunk people laughing around the corner. Something skittered across the alley, and Charley tried not to think of a swarm of rats.

  She didn’t even know where she was.

  Okay, girl. Step one—stop freaking out. Step two—get your ass out of this dumpster.

  Mustering the last of her energy, she scrambled to her feet, popped open the heavy metal lid, and peered out through the gap.

  Oh, fuck me.

  Filling the alley, appearing so suddenly Charley knew it had to be a setup, a writhing mass of inhuman monsters stalked toward her.

  She saw the outstretched hands, fingertips dripping with blood.

  She saw the hungry mouths, the glassy eyes, the jagged fangs.

  And in that brutal, terrible moment, Charley recognized her foes.

  Fucking grays.

  And they were heading straight for her.

  She dropped the dumpster lid. Crouched back down in the corner. And grabbed the biggest shard of glass she could find, hoping like hell she wouldn’t have to use it.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  “Where is she?!”

  Dorian’s furious roar echoed down Park Avenue, scaring the rats and the squatters alike out of their dark holes.

  He was bloody beside himself. Those fucking vampires and their demon stain had waylaid him for far too long, and though he’d slaughtered them in the end, the victory had come at too great a cost.

  He’d lost Charlotte.

  All that remained of her was a cell phone, shattered on the ground in the alley behind Perk. There was no sign of Sasha, either.

  “Find her!” he bellowed. “Find her, or I will demolish this entire city, brick by fucking brick until—”

  “We will,” Aiden said, placing a hand on Dorian’s shoulder. Cole was several paces ahead of them on the sidewalk, frantically trying to pick up her scent. “But you need to calm down and focus, or you’ll—”

  “Don’t…” He jerked free of Aiden’s grip and whirled on him, intending to let loose another endless rant, but the moment he saw the concern in Aiden’s eyes, all the breath rushed from his lungs.

  “I’m sorry,” Dorian said, his voice cracking. His heart shattering. His mind splintering into tiny fragments. “I’m falling apart, Aiden. The thought of losing her… I can’t… Where is she?”

  “Breathe, Dori. Please.”

  Dorian closed his eyes and took a deep breath, but it was no use. The fury boiled up again. He felt like he was going to explode.

  He wanted to blur out of there, to kill someone, to find a nest of demons and eviscerate every last one. But he couldn’t leave the city. He needed to walk, block by fucking block, inch by fucking inch, until he found his woman. His fucking heart.

  “Charlotte!” he shouted into the night.

  “Got her,” Cole said suddenly. “This way.”

  They followed him down Seventy-Second, stopping at the mouth of a narrow service alley.

  “She’s right down…” Cole sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, fuck your mother.”

  Dorian followed his gaze, his heart damn near ready to pound out of his chest.

  “And your mother’s mother,” Aiden added.

  The alley was full of grays. Dozens upon dozens—more than he could count at a quick scan. But they seemed subdued, or possibly sick. They milled around the alley like zombies, some of them scratching at the walls, some of them feeding on each other, others standing still as if they’d just run out of batteries.

  But there, in the back of the alley, something had drawn their attention.

  “Something in that dumpster’s got ‘em riled up.” Cole shook his head as the grays shoved against the dumpster, looking for a way in. Some of them had climbed on top, but they couldn’t open the lid. “I got a shit feeling about this.”

  “Are you sure she’s here?” Aiden asked, unable to hide the worry in his voice.

  “If she ain’t here now,” Cole said, “she was. Scent’s still fresh.”

  “Charlotte!” Dorian called out, desperation and hope colliding with the fear and fury in his heart. The grays closest to them turned to look, but he didn’t care. If she was here, he needed to get to her. Now.

  If she’s even alive…

  “Charlotte!” he called again, forcing the thought from his mind. There was no room for it.

  Bloody hell, woman. Where are you?

  “Charlotte!” he repeated.

  A small, muffled voice finally broke through, echoing across the sea of writhing grays. “Dorian?”

  Dorian nearly fell to his knees. His name on
her lips was a sonnet, a symphony.

  “Charlotte,” he breathed, the sound of her voice—however faint—giving him new life. “Where are you?”

  “Trapped in the dumpster!” she called back.

  “Stay put,” Dorian said, scanning the mob of grays again. “We’re coming for you.”

  Fucking hell, there were a lot of them. Too many to blur through.

  They were going to have to fight.

  Cole’s words from that first night in the cabin echoed.

  Blood and death, brother. Blood and death.

  Dorian turned to his friends. “If anyone wants out, now is the—”

  “See you on the other side, brothers.” Cole shifted into his wolf form and charged ahead, taking down two grays in quick succession.

  Aiden and Dorian exchanged a glance.

  “Yes, and about that raise…” Aiden said.

  “Fuck yourself, mate.”

  “Let’s hope we live long enough for that.”

  And with that, Dorian and his best mate charged into the shit show.

  As Dorian knew it would, the unprovoked assault put the beasts on the defense. It was as if someone had flipped the switch; all at once, they attacked.

  Side by side with his friends, in a desperate bid to reach his woman, Dorian fought them off, dodging their vicious but uncoordinated attacks, ripping heads from bodies as if he were pulling weeds from the garden. More than half of them had the demon amulets, their bodies rising again almost as soon as they hit the ground.

  How the fuck had so many managed to reach the city? And why were they all in a single location?

  The question prodded the back of his mind, but Dorian didn’t have time to ponder it. Right now, there was only the fight. Another head, another bloody heart, another amulet ripped from its cord, another pile of ash at his feet. The stench of so much rotten blood and gore nearly overwhelmed him. Yet all the while, the sight of that grimy black dumpster in the shadows was a lighthouse in the storm, keeping him on course.

  Charlotte was in there.

  She was alive.

  Getting to her was all that mattered.

  The fight had drawn the grays away from her, and Dorian didn’t let up. Hours? Days? Time lost all meaning. He had a job to do, and he fucking did it—his arms burning, his body soaked with their foul blood, his eyes blurry—until the last gray in his sights turned to ash.