by Мишель Роуэн
I felt that pain as I tugged on the cuffs and pulled my hand away to shake it out. “I don’t know how to get you loose.”
She sighed. “I wish you could have felt comfortable enough to tell me the truth about you and my husband. I feel that it’s something I had the right to know about.”
Frustration rose up inside me. “Why do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Always have to call him your husband?”
She looked confused. “Because that’s what he is. What difference does it make right now what I call him?”
“It’s just…” I exhaled shakily, thinking about the fact that she’d never recognized that her
“husband” was the Red Devil. “Whenever you say that you just remind me that he can never be mine and it hurts. A lot. I guess we’re having a camel-and-straw situation here, and I’m close to having a broken back.”
“It’s only a word.”
“No, it’s more than that. It’s… it’s a title. A brand. He’s ‘your husband.’ ” I even made air quotes. “You won’t sign the annulment because he’s yours and that’s all there is to it.”
“I don’t think this is the time or place to discuss this.”
“You’re absolutely right.”
She studied me for a long moment. “Do you hate me for not signing the papers?”
I raised my gaze to hers. “I wish I did sometimes, but I don’t. Having this nightwalker curse has taught me a lot. It’s taught me to value the times when I do have control over my life. And obviously now that my chain is gone those times are about to come to a stuttering end in the next few minutes.” I fought against the sting of tears. But I couldn’t lose it right now—I had to stay calm. “I don’t know what to do.”
Her expression turned fiercer. “You will do what I have always done and what I continue to do. You will survive. You will do whatever it takes to see another sunrise.”
“Nightwalkers don’t get to see sunrises.”
Her expression fell. “Oh, my dear—”
“And stop calling me dear.” A dark wave of violence swelled inside me.
Uh oh. That was not a good sign. I had to remain calm. I didn’t want to go Dark Sarah on
Veronique. Like I said, I didn’t hate her. I didn’t want to hurt her. And she was currently in a very precarious position—trapped in a room with a potential monster thirsty for the blood of a master vampire.
Her blood would be so sweet and rich, my nightwalker commented excitedly. Filled with power… running down my throat… delicious and nutritious… yum!
Thoughts like that were sooo not going to be very helpful at all at the moment.
“Did I ever tell you the story of how I met my true love, Marcellus?” Veronique asked.
That was the vamp Thierry told me was the original Red Devil before he became the man behind the mask. “Do you really think this is the best moment for a random stroll down memory lane?”
“I think this story is relevant to this particular situation, so if you will permit me to continue.”
I glanced back at the locked door. I couldn’t hear anything beyond it even if I strained my vampire ears. I figured Gideon was waiting patiently outside while I chowed down. I was still in shock from losing my gold chain. How would I ever be normal again? I hadn’t realized just how much I counted on getting that grimoire until it was no longer an option.
Geez, forget the grimoire, would you? my nightwalker said. You never wanted to break the curse in the first place. It’s too much fun being me.
I would not think about blood. And I would not notice the slow but steady pulse at
Veronique’s throat.
Admitting you had a problem was part of the solution, right? It was. I had a problem and I didn’t think hearing Veronique yap wistfully about her dead lover was going to help very much.
“Before I met Marcellus,” she began when I didn’t say anything to stop her, “I lived a privileged, but boring life with my mother and father and many servants in France. I was thought to be a great beauty and my hand was sought after by many.”
Here we go. “Sounds pretty good to me.”
“My parents had arranged for me to marry a wealthy man but he was very old and ugly. I told them I wanted to marry for love, but people didn’t marry for love until relatively recently. They married for much more practical reasons such as fortune or title. But then I met Marcellus.”
“Wasn’t he rich, too?” I asked. I wouldn’t look at her throat and the promise of master vampire blood beneath her skin. I wouldn’t.
“Oh, yes. He was very wealthy and handsome. I fell deeply in love with him at first sight and ran away with him. This wasn’t something proper young women did back then. I knew there would be no returning to my family, but that was all right. As long as I was with Marcellus I feared nothing.”
The flawless white length of her neck was becoming more distracting the longer she spoke, and she must have noticed my shifting attention because she cleared her throat.
“Sorry,” I said. “I… I’m having a hard time concentrating. Any way you can get to the point so we can deal with the problem at hand?”
“You truly have no control over your nightwalker?”
I guess we’ll find out soon enough, won’t we? my nightwalker snarled inside me.
“I’m trying.” I felt my fangs lengthen and sharpen in my mouth and I ran the tip of my tongue over them. My stomach growled with hunger.
“Marcellus revealed himself to me as a vampire the first night we made love,” she continued, undeterred. “He was ashamed and afraid of what I might think—that I’d leave him immediately in fear and loathing. But I didn’t. I asked him to sire me and he did. Since he was already a master vampire I was very strong from the beginning and he taught me how to survive.” She sighed at the memory. “How I loved him.”
“And then Marcellus left you and took up with a younger fledgling. I know this already, Veronique. And then the loneliness and solitude you felt during the Black Death caused you to sire Thierry and the rest is history. Uh… ancient history, actually. Gideon wants me to drain you so I can become stronger. Doesn’t this bother you even a little?”
“Of course it bothers me,” she said sharply. “But I have dealt with many more dire situations than this. I have survived to this day by doing whatever I must. And yes, Marcellus left me.” Her voice caught. “That betrayal still stings. But after everything that happened between us I know that he loved me as much as I loved him. He sacrificed himself to save me in the end. That was true love.”
My vision had slowly closed in and her voice became a tinny buzz that I had an easy time ignoring. “That was a lovely story. What was the purpose of it again?”
“If Thierry loves you so much, where is he now?” she asked.
“Why? Do you think he’d sacrifice himself to save you like Marcellus did?”
There was still no fear in her eyes, only pity. For me. “I’ve lived a long time without anyone coming to my rescue.”
A slow smile stretched my lips. “Honestly, Veronique, you really should have signed those annulment papers and headed back to your fabulous life in Europe. Washed your hands of this whole mess. But no, you had to hold on to Thierry—a man you don’t love—with both hands so somebody else didn’t get him.”
“Then perhaps Gideon is right. Maybe you should take this opportunity to kill me. There are many ways to kill a vampire, even a master, if one is willing.” She studied me. “Your eyes are black now, my dear.”
“Maybe I need to accept the fact that I’m a nightwalker.”
“It’s only an unfortunate curse. It’s not what you truly are.”
“You’re not the first one to say that, but I feel like a nightwalker, I act like a nightwalker.
The odds of my ever getting rid of this side of me are now slim to none. It’s real.”
“No,” she said firmly. “This is only magic and magic is not the same as reality.”
“All I know is that Gideon isn’t letting either of us out of here until I do what he wants me to do. And oddly, it’s becoming easier and easier the more you talk.”
I was very thirsty. Parched. Dying from the need for blood. Something I’d fought against since becoming a vampire—something I thought was really gross and monstrous and unhygienic. It was one thing to drink blood from a keg at a vampire club, but it was another thing to get it straight from the source itself. Shifting morals—one was good, one was bad. One made me normal, one made me a monster. It was still blood.
All my attention narrowed down to the pulse on Veronique’s throat—a pulse that had been pulsing away for seven hundred years. The beat had gone on. And it suddenly became the only thing in the world that existed for me.
I reached out to touch that pulse, feeling the blood coursing just below the surface of her skin. I felt the power emanating off her in waves. Gideon was right about so many things.
If I drank from her I would become more powerful.
If I drain her, my nightwalker said as I brought my mouth closer to Veronique’s throat, it will solve so many problems.
Yes, I thought. Maybe you’re right.
Suddenly, Veronique slapped me very hard across my face with her uncuffed hand.
“Step away from me,” she hissed.
I grabbed the front of her shirt and narrowed my eyes at her, baring my sharper-than-
normal fangs.
She slapped me again. Even harder this time.
“Ow!” I yelped and moved back from her.
Her dark eyes flashed. “Honestly, Sarah, you’re stronger than this.”
I shook my head. It was foggy and cloudy and completely confused, but there was a small bit of myself still there. “I don’t think I can stop this.”
“Of course you can.”
“I can’t!” I moved toward her again and got another stinging smack for my efforts. That was enough to clear my head enough to think half straight.
“Think of Thierry,” she said harshly. “He wouldn’t want you to be like this. He’d find it most unseemly.”
She was right. I tried to hold on to the image of Thierry in my head.
“I’m trying.”
Her jaw set. “It doesn’t get any easier, my dear. It never will. There are no simple answers in the life of a vampire. There will always be hunters, there will always be danger, there will always be those who wish to hurt us, but you must not let them defeat you. Survival should be your number-one concern. Just as it is mine.”
I was getting the gist: Be strong. Don’t wimp out. “I need to get us the hell out of here.”
“Again, you are not understanding me.” She brought her right forearm to her mouth and bit her wrist. “You may drink from me on my terms. I don’t think Gideon realizes that my blood is strong enough to give you back some of the control you are currently lacking. It won’t change the fact that your chain is gone, but it will help for a while.”
My eyes locked onto her wrist. “Veronique… I don’t know.”
“Do it,” she said, so sharply that I, well, did it.
I was so hungry, thanks to my curse, that her blood was like a Big Mac combo after two weeks of stale bread and water. I drank greedily—half of me thrilled, the other half scared to death.
It wasn’t a good mix of emotions.
My face still stung from where she’d hit me, but instead of trying to ignore that I hung on to it. The pain kept me grounded. I drank from her until she pushed at my forehead with her chained hand.
“That’s enough,” she said.
“I feel… better.” I pulled away and looked at her. “Are my eyes still black?”
She nodded. “They are.”
I turned toward the locked door and kicked it, feeling a bit surprised but satisfied when it splintered open on contact thanks to my extra nightwalker strength. I stalked down the hallway and back into the main club where Gideon waited by the bar. I made a beeline toward him and grabbed his throat before he had a moment to defend himself.
“Sarah—” he choked out. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” I asked, cocking my head to the side. “Don’t pop your head off like a dandelion for being a total, manipulative dick?”
I brought my other hand to his throat and squeezed harder. His eyes bugged out and I saw sudden fear behind his gaze. His face began turning an unpleasant shade of purple.
Don’t hurt him, you bitch! my nightwalker yelled.
I frowned and tried to ignore my evil inner voice.
Then I felt a hand close around my upper arm and I couldn’t hold on to Gideon any longer. My eyes widened when I saw it was Veronique. She pushed me—just a small shove, but her strength was great enough to make me stagger backward and fall on my ass on the empty dance floor.
I had no idea she was that strong.
The wounds at her wrists—from where she’d offered me her blood and from being secured with silver—were already healing.
Gideon coughed and sputtered and touched his tender throat.
“Not so happy with me anymore, Sarah?” he managed after a moment. “I suppose I can understand that.”
I scrambled up off the hard floor and moved toward him again, but Veronique stepped into my path to stop me.
“What are you doing?” Her strange behavior was really throwing me off. “And how did you get out of the handcuffs?”
“With a key,” she said simply, her expression unreadable.
“A key? What key?”
“The key Gideon gave me earlier.” She said it very matter-of-factly. “I’m sorry. But as I said before, survival is my only goal.”
“What are you talking about?”
Gideon came to Veronique’s side. He took her hand in his and brought her healing wrist to his lips to kiss it. “Poor Veronique. I’m sorry about the pain.”
“It is nothing.”
My vision had grown shaky, but that might be because I was trembling all over. “What in the hell is going on here?”
Gideon smiled at me. “Do you remember the woman I told you about? The vampire who seduced me years ago to save her own neck?”
“Best sex of your life?” I did recall that little fable. Then my gaze shot to Veronique as I remembered Gideon’s rumpled bedsheets from yesterday afternoon. I shook my head.
“No. I don’t believe it.”
“I’m sure you won’t understand,” she said simply, “but Gideon is very powerful and will only become more so after he is sired tonight, along with having a new outlook on what it means to be a vampire. As I said before, survival is my only goal. How can I not align myself with him, especially now? No one has to get hurt. You never would have drunk from me without duress if you thought I knew about all of this. This is the best decision for everyone involved. Trust me, my dear. I don’t do this to hurt you or anyone else.”
Veronique was with Gideon? I could understand, although only partially, sleeping with him in the past to distract him from killing her—he was pretty hot—but to do so willingly now?
I was stunned, but as the moments ticked by it made more sense to me. Veronique was always selfish. She valued her existence. She was one of the oldest vampires in the entire world. She was a survivor—no matter what it took.
And I knew firsthand how very charming and convincing Gideon could be when he wanted something.
Even though I resented her role in Thierry’s life, I’d believed in her. Hell, I even looked up to her a bit. Like a much, much… much… older sister. I was disappointed in her.
“I have to get out of here,” I said shakily. “If I wanted to deal with a major daytime drama
I would have set my TiVo.”
Gideon shook his head. “It’s the middle of a very sunny day. Without your chain, I don’t advise that you go anywhere until after sunset.”
I stepped slowly toward him again. He didn’t flinch away from me.
“Are you going to attempt to kill me again?” he
asked.
“No.” I reached down to take his hand in mine. “I was a bit upset about you breaking my chain and, you know, burning my chance to break my curse. But killing you or getting mad about that won’t help, will it?”
“No, it won’t.”
With one quick yank, I pulled off the magically glamourizing watch from his wrist. A pulse of light moved across him and an instant later his scars had fully returned.
His eyes narrowed. “Give that back to me.”
“This?” I held the watch out to him for a second, but then stepped back out of his reach, dropped the timepiece on the floor, and stomped on it with the heel of my shoe. “Oops.
Sorry, about that. I slipped.”
It was petty, but it felt so good.
He reached up to touch his scarred face and cringed. Veronique looked at him with shock.
“Now I’m leaving.” I backed away from them toward the entrance. “Are you going to stop me?”
His jaw tightened. “Sarah, don’t do this. Stay here. Don’t put yourself in harm’s way just to prove a point.”
“Screw you, Gideon.”
Yeah, real eloquent. I know.
Without another word, I turned my back and walked out into the used bookstore.
“I’ll find you, wherever you go,” Gideon called after me. “The ritual will go on as scheduled. A simple glamour won’t matter then. My scars will be healed for real when you sire me.”
A tear of anger and frustration trickled down my right cheek as I pushed open the front door, but it was burned away the moment I emerged onto the sidewalk outside the club and the blazing sunlight hit me full-on.