by Paige Tyler
Savanna backpedaled wildly, her heart pounding in her chest. Crap. She needed a weapon. Quick.
Her eyes darted to one of the broken balusters lying on the floor, but the vampire must have guessed her intent because he lifted his arm and backhanded her hard across the face. The blow flung her back, knocking her to the tiled floor so hard that she slid across the slick surface until she banged up against the far wall. She held her breath, waiting for the explosion of pain that she was sure was coming. But it never did.
Her cheek stung from the slap and her butt felt a little numb where she’d fallen on it, but other than that, she didn’t seem to be hurt at all. She supposed she had her new vampire DNA to thank for that.
Abruptly remembering the vampire who had smacked her, she lifted her head, expecting to see him advancing on her, but he’d already turned his attention back to Kaige and the other vampire.
While the first one had been busy with her, Kaige had gained the upper hand and gotten to his feet. As she watched, he drew back his fist and punched the second vampire so hard that he went flying across the entryway. With that vampire out of the way for the moment, Kaige turned his attention to the one who’d backhanded her. Even in the darkness, Savanna could see the fury written clearly on her lover’s face.
Eyeing the broken pieces of railing that littered the floor, she pushed herself to her feet and silently moved toward them. If she could find a piece that was heavy enough, she could smack one of the vamps over the head while he was focused on Kaige.
She was just moving by the doorway to the kitchen when arms suddenly reached out from the darkened room and wrapped around her, trapping her in a vice-like grip. Oh God, there was a third vampire.
Savanna shrieked and struggled to free herself. But the vampire holding her was too strong and began to drag her into the kitchen.
She beat at him with her fists. “Let go of me, you bastard!”
“Stop it!” he hissed in her ear. “You’re coming with me. I’m stronger so there’s no use fighting.”
Like hell. Bringing her arm forward and then back, she jabbed it into her captor’s ribs with every ounce of strength she had.
He grunted, loosening his grip around her waist as the breath rushed out of him.
Seizing the opportunity, Savanna jerked free of his grasp and ran for the entryway and Kaige. But she didn’t get more than a few feet before the vampire grabbed her arm and spun her around.
Her eyes went wide as she recognized him. It was the vampire in the overcoat who had bitten her outside the Goth club.
He yanked her close, his lip curling into a sneer, his fangs extended. “Didn’t expect to see me again, did you?”
Savanna tried to pull her arm free of his grasp, but his grip was like iron. “Let go of me, you asshole!”
He leaned close. “If it was up to me, I’d finish what I started in that alley, bitch, but you’ve been claimed, so that means I have to let you live. Why don’t you just make this easy on both of us and come quietly?”
Not waiting for a reply, he dragged her across the kitchen toward the back door. She didn’t know what the hell he’d meant about her being claimed, but she did know that she’d never get away from him if he got her outside. Savanna did the only thing she could think of. She lifted her free hand and raked her nails down the side of his face. It was then that she discovered another perk to being a vampire. One, her nails were a hell of a lot stronger than they used to be. And two, her hands were more powerful than they’d ever been before. That meant her nails dug into the vampire’s face much deeper than they would have if she’d been human. He released her with a howl of pain to grab his bleeding face.
Savanna spun around and ran for the entryway. As she did, her foot caught in the leg of a stool and she tripped, falling to the floor with a thud. Heart pounding, she looked over her shoulder to see the vampire bearing down on her, his dark eyes full of hatred, the claw marks on his face ragged and red with blood.
“You’ll pay for that, bitch!” he snarled. “I don’t care what the fuck he wants.”
Desperate to get away from him, Savanna scrambled backward on her hands and feet as the vampire advanced on her.
Suddenly, something whizzed through the air over her head. Overcoat Vamp stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide with shock. Savanna could only stare in disbelief at the piece of wooden railing embedded in his shoulder.
Stunned, she looked over her shoulder to see Kaige standing in the doorway of the kitchen, prepared to throw another piece of the balustrade.
Overcoat Vamp growled in rage and reached up to pull out the shard of wood, but it wouldn’t budge. Apparently realizing he had only seconds before Kaige put another one into him, he turned with a hateful glare and smashed through the kitchen door, one arm cradling the other.
Savanna scrambled to her feet and threw herself into Kaige’s outstretched arms.
He hugged her to him tightly. “Are you okay?”
For a moment, she was too shaken to do anything other than hold him, but then her eyes went wide. She tenderly touched her fingers to his bruised cheek. “You’re hurt!”
“It’s just a scratch,” he said softly, brushing her hair back from her face. “I’ll be fine.”
Savanna swallowed hard. It didn’t look like a scratch to her. Neither did all the gashes on his chest and arms.
“What about the other vampires?” she asked, her gaze going to the entryway beyond the kitchen.
But even as she said the words, she saw the body sprawled on the tile floor. A piece of wood similar to the kind Kaige had thrown at Overcoat Vamp stuck out from the vampire’s chest. Blood stained the front of his shirt. There was more on the floor around him. A lot more. There was no sign of the second vamp that Kaige had been fighting. Against her will, her gaze was drawn to the ever expanding pool of blood on the floor.
“Is he…” she began, the words trailing off.
Kaige put his arms around her again. “Yes.”
She lifted her head to look up at him, her brow furrowed in confusion. “He’s a vampire, right?”
Kaige’s mouth tightened. “He was.”
Her gaze went to the body on the floor again. “How come he didn’t…you know…go poof…or something?”
“Because that only happens in the movies,” Kaige said. There was no trace of teasing in his voice this time.
From where Savanna stood, she tried to see more of the entryway. “Where’s the other one?”
“He took off when his friend went down,” Kaige said. “I’m not sure, but I got the idea that they both thought they were invincible. When I killed the first one, the other vampire apparently thought better of continuing the fight.”
She sighed with relief. She was just so glad that Kaige was okay.
Kaige cupped her cheek, his gaze searching her face. “The vampire who dragged you into the kitchen was the same one who attacked you outside the club, wasn’t he?”
She nodded. “But how did he find me?”
Kaige shook his head, his mouth tightening. “I don’t know. I don’t know what the hell he wanted with you, either.”
Savanna shivered as she remembered what the other vampire had said as he’d tried to drag her out of the house. “He told me that I’d been claimed. What did he mean by that?”
Kaige frowned. “I have no idea.” He brushed her hair back, his dark eyes intent. “But he’s not going to get near you again, sweetheart. I promise.”
She nodded. His words made her feel warm inside, like when she was with him nothing could hurt her. “What about him?” she asked, her gaze going to the dead vampire on the floor of the entryway again. “Since he’s a vampire, we can’t call the police, can we?”
Kaige shook his head. “No. I’ll call Jensen. He’ll know what to do.”
* * * * *
Jensen arrived thirty minutes later, along with two other vampires—a slender blonde female and a tall, curly-haired ma
le. He introduced them as Hildi Richards and Andrew Blanton. Kaige had never met either of them before, but it was clear from the equipment they carried and the way they began checking out the house that the two vampires were security operatives who worked for the Counsel. They were the closest thing to cops in the vampire community, but they also served as a clean-up crew of sorts. They investigated serious violations of Counsel rules, as well as made sure no incriminating evidence was ever discovered that could cause problems for the vampire community.
As Hildi and Andrew began to check the place out, Kaige and Savanna went into the kitchen to give Jensen the rundown on what had happened.
“You’re sure he said you’d been claimed?” Jensen asked when Savanna told him what the other vampire had said as he’d tried to drag her out of the house.
She nodded. “Yes. Do you know what he meant by that?”
Jensen shook his head. “No. But if he went to all this trouble to grab you, then he’s probably going to try it again.”
Savanna shivered at that, and Kaige tightened his arm around her waist, pulling her close.
“I don’t think he wanted me for himself,” she said quietly.
“Though he didn’t mention another vampire by name, he implied that he was here on someone else’s orders.”
Kaige frowned. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Neither do I,” Jensen agreed.
“Do you think he was referring to the vampire who sired him?” Kaige asked.
“It’s likely,” Jensen said.
Hildi walked into the kitchen just then, a laptop in her hands, which she set down on the counter. “I ran the dead vamp’s pic through our face-recognition software and he’s nowhere in the system.”
“Damn,” Jensen muttered. He glanced at Savanna. “You’re sure you’ve never seen him before? He wasn’t at the Goth club that night with the other vampire?”
Savanna started to shake her head as she gazed at the picture on Hildi’s computer, but then her eyes went wide. “Wait a minute. I have seen him before. Two nights ago, he was outside the medical lab where I work.”
Kaige looked at her in surprise. “What? Why didn’t you mention it?”
She gave him a sheepish look. “I didn’t think it was anything, just some guy standing across the street. He was there one minute, and gone the next.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Jensen said before Kaige could reply. “You two can’t stay here while we figure out who these rogue vampires are and what they want. Why don’t you come and stay with Lila and me?”
Kaige’s mouth tightened. He would rather have hung around his condo and waited for the rogue vampires to come back, but it was more important to keep Savanna safe. He didn’t like the idea of going to Jensen’s place, though.
“I appreciate the offer,” he said. “But I don’t want to put you and Lila at risk. If these guys found us here, they could track us to your place, too. We’re going to need to go somewhere else.”
Jensen thought a moment. “You’re probably right. The Counsel has a house up in Sonoma. No one but senior administrators know where it is and there are guards on it 24/7.”
That sounded like a much better idea to Kaige. “What are you going to be doing?”
His friend sighed. “Getting this place cleaned up for starters,” he said. “Hildi will take a sample of the dead vampire’s blood and compare it against the DNA registry we have. It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out who sired these bastards. That should give us a good lead on how to find them.”
Chapter Nine
Since most of Savanna’s stuff was still in the suitcase she’d brought from her apartment, and Kaige didn’t need very much, it didn’t take either of them very long to get ready. When they went back downstairs a few minutes later, Hildi was taking a blood sample from the dead vampire, while Andrew was soaking up the mess on the floor with absorbent pads. Kaige saw Savanna avert her gaze as they edged around the body and into the kitchen.
Jensen was on his cell phone when they walked in. Glancing at them, the blond-haired vampire told whoever was on the other end of the line that he’d call them back and hung up.
“Everything’s all set up at the house in Sonoma,” he said, handing Kaige a piece of paper with the directions on how to get there. “The guards are expecting you, so getting in won’t be a problem, but make sure you’re not followed as you leave the city. I’ll call you the moment I find out anything here.”
Ten minutes later, Kaige and Savanna were heading for the Golden Gate Bridge in his SUV. He glanced in the rearview mirror several times to make sure they weren’t being followed before finally looking over at Savanna. She was staring out the side window, her hands clasped tightly in her lap.
“Hey,” he said softly. “You okay?”
She turned her head to look at him. “I can’t stop thinking about what happened tonight.”
Kaige reached across the console to take one of her hands in his. “It’s okay. You’re safe now. They won’t be able to find us.”
Savanna swallowed hard. “I know. It’s just that I keep seeing you fighting with those two vampires. When you went over that railing, I thought you…” She stopped, her voice trailing off.
He squeezed her hand. “I know. But I had to get them away from you. Though that didn’t work out so well since you came running down the stairs. I really wish you would have stayed upstairs where you were safe. I know you wanted to help, but you could have gotten hurt by putting yourself in the middle of the fight like that.”
In the darkness, he saw her cheeks color at his gentle scolding. “I couldn’t just stand there and watch while you fought both of them. I had to try and help. I was afraid for you. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
Kaige rubbed his thumb back and forth soothingly over her hand. “I was afraid for you, too.”
Terrified had been more like it. The image of that vampire advancing on her in the kitchen, with his teeth bared and undisguised hatred in his eyes, would be etched in Kaige’s mind forever. If he hadn’t run into the kitchen when he did… God, he didn’t even want to think about it.
He gave her hand another squeeze. “We’re safe now. That’s what matters.”
Savanna nodded, but said nothing.
Kaige glanced in the rearview mirror again. Despite the late hour, there were still a lot of cars on the road, but traffic gradually began to thin out on the other side of the bridge. He pulled a couple U-turns, checking to see if anyone was behind them, but it seemed to be clear. Even so, he still checked frequently on the way up to Sonoma.
He was glad for the directions Jensen had given him. The house the Counsel owned was tucked deep in the middle of wine country and he would never have stumbled across it without them.
As Jensen had promised, the guards were expecting them. After checking Kaige’s identification, the male vampire waved them through the gate, telling them to follow the main road up to the house. While no longer a working vineyard, Kaige could see why the Counsel had purchased the property. With its huge two-story house and guest cottage, it was an ideal place for them to meet when they came to the west coast.
“It’s beautiful up here,” Savanna said as they drove along the winding road.
Kaige silently agreed. In all the years he’d lived in San Francisco, he’d never been to Sonoma, but it was gorgeous country.
When they pulled up in front of the house, Kaige was surprised to see a male vampire waiting for them. Dressed in a three-piece suit, with gray hair and a kindly face, he looked like he was in his mid-seventies, though how old he was in vampire years was anyone’s guess.
He gave them a smile. “Mr. Travers. Ms. Royce. Please come in.”
Kaige put his hand on the small of Savanna’s back, urging her into the entryway. If the house was impressive from the outside, that was nothing compared to the inside. There was marble and highly-polished wood everywhere. The décor screamed opulent eleganc
e right down to the antique brass doorknobs.
“I’m Mortimer, the butler here,” the vampire said in an English accent as he closed the door behind them. “Mr. Flynn told me of your situation. It sounds as if you’ve had a long night. If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you to your room. I’m sure you’re tired.”
Giving them a nod, he led the way up a sweeping set of stairs to a room at the far end of the hall. “I hope this will be to your liking.”
Kaige returned the other vampire’s smile. “It’s fine, thank you.”
The butler nodded. “May I bring you something to eat? And some blood perhaps?”
After the fight earlier, Kaige could use both. He glanced at Savanna, who nodded.
“That would be great, thanks,” Kaige told the butler.
Mortimer nodded. “And do you and Ms. Royce prefer your blood heated or over ice?”
“Heated please,” Kaige said.
The gray-haired vampire inclined his head. “Very good.”
As Mortimer closed the door behind him, Kaige turned to find a small smile curving Savanna’s lips.
“Do you think he’s always so formal?” she asked.
Kaige’s mouth quirked. “I think it probably comes with the job description.”
She walked over to the adjoining bathroom to look inside, then glanced at Kaige over her shoulder. “Do you think we’d have time for a shower before he comes back with the food?”
“Probably,” Kaige said. He was sure that Mortimer would just leave the food in the bedroom if he thought they were otherwise occupied.
“Coming?” she asked, looking at him over her shoulder as she wiggled out of her jeans and stepped into the glass-enclosed shower.
Kaige stifled a groan. Even with everything that had happened that night, his body responded the moment he saw her naked. But he doubted Savanna would be in the mood to make love, so his cock was just going to have to behave. When he stepped into the shower, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. She snuggled up against him for a few moments, but then surprised him by putting her arms around his neck and kissing him long and passionately on the mouth. Apparently, she needed comfort of another sort.